WBk 
 
DUKE UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 The Glenn Negley Collection 
 of Utopian Literature 
 
*l 
 
BACK TO THE SOIL 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/backtosoilorfromOOgilm 
 
Back to the Soil 
 
 OR 
 
 From Tenement House to 
 Farm Colony 
 
 A Circular Solution of an Angular Problem 
 
 By 
 Bradley Gilman 
 
 Author of "The Drifting Island," etc. 
 With an Introduction by 
 
 Edward Fverett Hale 
 
 Boston 
 L. C. Page y Company 
 
 MDCCCCI 
 
Copyright, iqot 
 By L. C. Page & Company 
 
 (incorporated) 
 All rights reserved 
 
 ffolonfal $rt0B 
 
 Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 
 
 Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 
 

 DEDICATION. 
 
 I dedicate this book, first, to the Ward VT. Con- 
 ference of Associated Charities, in Boston; and, 
 secondly, to the memory of the youthful Saul, son of 
 Kish. 
 
 The Author. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The publishers of this important book have asked 
 me to write a few lines of introduction, if only to beg 
 readers to take the book most seriously, as an impor- 
 tant contribution to one of the great central questions 
 of the time. They have asked an old man to say this, 
 who has had to fight the worst tendencies of city life 
 in most of his man's work, in the daily routine of a 
 working minister. They have thought that his word 
 might carry enough weight with it, to persuade se- 
 rious readers to take the book, not as another Utopia, 
 but as a real contribution to the scientific sociolog- 
 ical work of this new century. 
 
 Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, that eminent improver 
 of cities, who has done so much for the beauty and 
 health of American towns, once said to me that, 
 while he was greatly praised for his work in the 
 ruralising of the cities, he considered the complemen- 
 tary work of the urbanising of the country to be an 
 enterprise far more important in the life of America. 
 
 This careful opinion of a leader like him will be 
 shared by all men who will diligently study the most 
 difficult problems of our social order. 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It must be observed that whatever is done must be 
 done in accord, — by a considerable number of peo- 
 ple, who are, from the beginning, to bear one anoth- 
 er's burdens, and whose success depends, as most 
 success depends, on the victory of — together. 
 
 The prejudice, natural enough, which keeps George 
 Hammer, the blacksmith, in a crowded tenement- 
 house, where his next neighbours are Will Penman, 
 the teller in the Commercial Bank, and Henry Jalap, 
 the apothecary at the corner, springs from an effort 
 which Frank Question-mark made eleven years ago, 
 when the Prospect Hill speculators advertised their 
 lots for sale. Trains went out one day to Prospect 
 Hill, and no one had to buy tickets. This was the 
 day when lots were sold at auction. There was a 
 pretty pavilion on Everett Square, which was an 
 oval space in the middle of the lots. There was a 
 nice free lunch, — oysters and salad, yes, — with a 
 little champagne. The view was exquisite. Even the 
 birds sang, — and the visitors gathered long-stemmed 
 violets for their wives. The lots were put up for 
 sale, and they sold with spirit, so that when ISTos. 
 23 and 24 were sold, Erank was able to purchase, at 
 exactly the price he had dreamed of. He and Eanny 
 did not mean to build, that year ; but, next year, — 
 " Oh, it would be lovely ! " 
 
 Yes ! But when Fanny was well enough to ride 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 out, and they took her on her first ride with the 
 nurse and the baby, things did not look so attractive. 
 The grass was now very high, and it even grew in 
 the roadway as well as in the house-lots. There 
 were awful gulches in the roads, where the water had 
 run riot in a summer storm a few days before. A 
 deserted shanty had a door swinging open, on which 
 was a sign that the agent would be found at No. 4 
 Mammon Block, in town. Frank told Fanny that all 
 would be quite different in the next year ; and they 
 rode home, but rather silent, and they did not go to 
 the nursery to buy plants for their garden. 
 
 Before long the tax-bill came in for the new house- 
 lots. Frank paid the tax-bill, but found, a little to 
 his disgust, that no other purchaser had materialised, 
 and that he was the only " householder " on Prospect 
 Hill. 
 
 He holds the deed of his two lots still. But he has 
 never built his home there. He still lives in a tene- 
 ment house, and tries to solace his wife by calling 
 their home a suite in an " apartment house." Their 
 children live, and move, and have a being ; but they 
 are sallow and pale, and not one of them knows a 
 violet from a China aster, or a bobolink from an Eng- 
 lish sparrow. Such is the experience which most 
 dwellers in crowded towns have, in their efforts to 
 retire into the country. 
 
 What Mr. Gilman proposes, my friends, in this 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 book, is that earnest men and women shall combine 
 in a noble enterprise, in which all of them shall walk 
 with God, and shall work with God. I will not 
 anticipate the reader's pleasure by stepping one pace 
 forward on the pleasant path where Mr. Gilman in- 
 vites us to walk with him. 
 
 So far as that path opens before us, I will only say 
 that the book offers a practical method for removing, 
 at once, in one joint enterprise, people who are freez- 
 ing or sweltering in the life of one of our crowded 
 towns, into that life of nature, — of oxygen and 
 ozone, of hope and of the joy which belongs to 
 hope, — which is indicated where the Scripture S2ijs 
 that the Lord God planted a garden, and placed in it 
 the first man and woman, that they might be fellow 
 workers with him, in conquering the world and sub- 
 duing it. 
 
 The book is written and published in Massachu- 
 setts. Massachusetts is commonly spoken of among 
 the crowded States of the world. The average popu- 
 lation of Rhode Island, of Connecticut, of Belgium, is 
 larger than that of Massachusetts. But Massachu- 
 setts is more densely peopled than the island of Ire- 
 land, generally called crowded. For, three million peo- 
 ple, in Massachusetts, inhabit rather more than eight 
 thousand square miles, — say roughly, five million 
 and a half acres. It is easy to see that every house- 
 hold in Massachusetts — if there be ten persons in 
 
INTRODUCTION". Xlll 
 
 a household — might have and control sixteen acres 
 of land, if men wanted really to bring up their chil- 
 dren to work with God, to walk with him, under his 
 open heaven, and to see Him as the pure in heart see 
 Him. 
 
 And larger opportunities than these present them- 
 selves, in those American States which are not 
 "densely peopled." 
 
 Such are some of the simple considerations, which 
 ought to persuade the intelligent reader of this book, 
 not merely to " run his eye " over it, as an amusing 
 fancy of a wide-awake author, but to study it, as an 
 important suggestion for the social order of the days 
 before us. 
 
 Edward E. Hale. 
 
 March 25, 1901. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This book aims at setting forth the hopeful 
 possibilities of country life, in contrast with 
 the forlorn and desperate actualities of the 
 crowded life of our larger cities. It depicts, 
 in fiction form, the concrete conditions under 
 which country life should be undertaken ; and 
 it points out many of the resources and oppor- 
 tunities of the country, which thus far have 
 been overlooked. If the author had believed 
 that he was merely adding one more to the 
 long list of books which vainly deplore exist- 
 ing conditions among the city poor, he would 
 not have set pen to paper ; but, because he has 
 been convinced, by study and experience, that 
 the city cannot remedy the ills it generates, 
 and that the country districts — if properly 
 developed — can, in large measure, remedy 
 those ills, he has ventured to portray, and 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 even to minutely describe, his ideal of a rural 
 community of working-people. 
 
 He is not ignorant of the many failures 
 which have resulted, in the past, from 
 schemes of community and farm-colony life. 
 He simply affirms that those failures were 
 due to violations of social law, which, in the 
 plan here offered, are avoided ; and he further 
 asserts that his plan comprises certain vitally 
 important features, which have not before 
 been utilised, or even clearly recognised. 
 
 The one great barrier to farm life, for city- 
 bred poor, — solitude, — is overcome, in this 
 plan, by a unique method of grouping the 
 homes as closely as possible, and by various 
 other methods less novel. The addition of 
 " minor industries," or " small handicrafts," 
 to the usual round of farm duties can give 
 wholesome variety of work and increased 
 sources of income. 
 
 The book distinctly rejects and condemns 
 " Socialism," or " Communism," as a basis for 
 united action, and urges a free cooperative 
 "Individualism," by which many enterprises 
 
PKEFACE. Xvii 
 
 are possible, which have been impossible, 
 heretofore, in farm life, as commonly under- 
 stood. 
 
 Such persons as have kept informed upon 
 the problems of city pauperism, and means 
 for its relief, must have noted how close 
 many writers have come to the remedy offered 
 by the farm-colony. This striking contrast, 
 between crowded city and sparsely settled 
 country, led Carlyle to exclaim, in his essay, 
 "Chartism," "Our terrestrial planet — nine- 
 tenths of it yet vacant, or tenanted by nomads 
 — is still crying, 'Come and till me, come 
 and reap me ! ' " 
 
 Again, Mrs. S. A. Barnett, of Toynbee Hall, 
 London, in an essay, says : " To get the young 
 of our vast cities interested in country life, is 
 no slight good, now, when migration or emi- 
 gration seems the only solution to the great 
 problem of city overpopulation." 
 
 Hardly a writer or thinker or worker, in 
 the philanthropic field, but has cast his eyes 
 longingly, but rather hopelessly, at the broad 
 untenanted tracts of the country ; but so many 
 
XVU1 PKEFACE. 
 
 glittering Utopias have dissolved into damp 
 fog, that few persons have dared hope for 
 successful colonisation. This book, however, 
 dares to reopen the subject ; it ventures to 
 exploit hitherto undeveloped resources for 
 happiness, offered by country life ; and it indi- 
 cates some of the fruitful lines of industry, 
 which there could be entered upon, in con- 
 junction with the tilling of the soil. 
 
 The amount of money required to launch 
 such a colony as is here outlined would be 
 easily forthcoming, if people were convinced 
 of the soundness of the plan. In these days 
 of magnificent fortunes, and munificent gifts, 
 a hundred dollars or a hundred thousand 
 dollars are often equally available for sound 
 public reforms and wise philanthropies. 
 
 The author cannot rationally expect that 
 his new theories of farm colonisation will be 
 found impregnable at all points, and workable 
 in all particulars ; he simply believes that, in 
 the main, this book opens a path of hope for 
 the city's poor ; and he welcomes corrections 
 and amendments from any, who, like himself, 
 
PREFACE. XIX 
 
 feel deeply concerned for an improvement in 
 the social and industrial condition of the 
 worthy but unhappy poor, now swarming in 
 our large cities. 
 
 Bradley Gilman\ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 Introduction ix 
 
 Preface xv 
 
 I. The Problem Introduced ... 1 
 
 II. A Lesson from a Pie .... 23 
 
 III. Circle City on Paper .... 64 
 
 IV. Circle City in Reality .... 88 
 V. From Hedges and By-ways . . . 116 
 
 VI. Ab Urbe Condita 133 
 
 VII. Education — Secular and Religious . 156 
 
 VIII. Rulers of the People .... ISO 
 
 IX. Finished Products and Others . . 204 
 
 X. C— C 228 
 
LIST OF DRAWINGS. 
 
 A Circle City Dwelling 
 General Plan of Circle City . 
 Plan of a Section of Circle City 
 First Floor Plan .... 
 Second Floor Plan 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Frontispiece 
 . 74 
 . 79 
 . 100 
 . 101 
 
BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PROBLEM INTRODUCED. 
 
 IF my memory serves me aright, the problem 
 with which this little book concerns itself 
 first faced me as long ago as when I was a boy, 
 and a hungry tramp came to the door, asking 
 food. Then, for the first time, I realised 
 that there really were people in the world, who 
 did not find a bountiful table set for them, 
 three times a day. From that time on, at in- 
 tervals, in various ways, I had intimations of 
 the distress and need which exist in many 
 hearts and homes, throughout the world. 
 Sometimes it was a beggar asking alms on 
 the street, or it was a collection for "the 
 poor," taken in church, or a paragraph in 
 
A BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 the newspaper, recounting the horror of an 
 accident and the destitution of a family. 
 
 The full magnitude of the problem, how- 
 ever, did not come to me until many years 
 later, after I had completed my studies at 
 school and college, had passed through my 
 ordination service, and been installed over a 
 parish. Those incidents of childhood, already 
 named, were certainly the more remote phases 
 of my experience, which led up to the care- 
 ful consideration and attempted solution here 
 given. But the series of incidents, which led 
 more directly to it, began, as nearly as I can 
 recollect, with a certain evening in October, 
 when I came home, weary and despondent, 
 from my parish round of duties, and took my 
 seat at the tea-table. 
 
 My wife, who is always quick to discern my 
 moods, asked no questions, but ran cheerily 
 on in a little chit-chat of reminiscences about 
 the sewing-circle, which had met that after- 
 noon. Twelve aprons had been made up, for 
 the North End Children's Home, and a barrel 
 of second-hand clothing had been packed and 
 
THE PROBLEM INTRODUCED. 6 
 
 sent to the Ockmulgee Coloured School, in 
 Georgia. 
 
 When I had finished my tea, I felt some- 
 what refreshed, and more inclined to talk. 
 This change of mood did not escape my watch- 
 ful wife's notice, and she casually inquired, as 
 she led the way into the library, " What has 
 happened, to make you so depressed ? Noth- 
 ing serious, I hope." And she sat down with 
 her sewing, at the table, and I threw myself 
 on the lounge. 
 
 " Oh, nothing unusual," I replied, gloomily ; 
 " it's only the same old story, a man out of 
 work, and his wife and five children hungry 
 and cold." 
 
 "What family is it?" inquired my wife. 
 " Do I know them ? " 
 
 "It's that family on the east side," I 
 answered. "Follen is the name. I think 
 you carried some clothing and dainties there, 
 once, when the oldest child had a fever." 
 
 "Certainly, I recall them. What is the 
 trouble with them? Is Mr. Follen out of 
 employment?" 
 
4 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 "Yes. He is a printer by trade, and a 
 fairly good workman, I'm told. But they 
 have introduced two of those new type-setting 
 machines into the office where he works, and 
 he and a dozen other men have been dis- 
 charged. The new machines, with one man 
 at each, can do the work of six or eight 
 men." 
 
 I spoke with a little bitterness, and I was 
 conscious of a slight sense of anger toward 
 Howland and Stetson, for having made this 
 new departure in their business. My wife 
 had the same thought, for she looked up 
 from her work and said : " That seems very 
 unlike Mr. Howland. I have met him once 
 or twice, and I have often seen his name on 
 lists of contributions to various charities. 
 Probably it is Mr. Stetson's doing. I have 
 heard — " 
 
 " Oh, no, my dear," I interrupted ; " you 
 are on the wrong tack, if you will pardon me 
 for saying so. Howland is a good man, and 
 so is Stetson. I have met them several times, 
 and their reputation in the city is high. I 
 
THE PROBLEM INTRODUCED. 
 
 fear that you don't understand the ins and 
 outs of the matter. They mean well by their 
 employes, but they are driven to this step by 
 competition. You see, they publish, among 
 other papers, the Weekly Gazette. Now, that 
 periodical is much like the Family Assist- 
 ant, to which you subscribe. If I remember 
 aright, you said that the annual subscription 
 to the Assistant was a half dollar less, this 
 year. I don't know the facts, but I surmise 
 that the publishers of the Assistant have 
 introduced these new machines, and have 
 thereby lessened the cost of printing; they 
 can therefore afford to offer it at a lower rate 
 of subscription. The Weekly Gazette is a 
 paper very similar to the Assistant, and must 
 also lower its subscription, or the people who 
 now take the Gazette will soon take the 
 Assistant, instead." 
 
 " So that is what you mean by ' competi- 
 tion,' " remarked my wife, nervously biting 
 off a needleful of thread as she spoke. 
 
 " Yes, that is one example, out of hundreds 
 which could be given, of the harsh, inexo- 
 
6 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 rable working of the economic principle of 
 competition." 
 
 "Well, I don't like it," ejaculated my 
 wife, looking at me as reproachfully as though 
 I had instituted it, and was responsible for its 
 harmful doings. Despite my depression, I 
 laughed at the dear woman, so quick to feel 
 for all unfortunate souls, and I said : " I'm 
 sure I don't like it any better than you do; 
 or, at least, I don't enjoy seeing the suffering 
 and misfortune it often causes. But I didn't 
 create the laws of political economy, and I 
 protest against your looking upon me as if 
 I were responsible for them. Moreover, there 
 are many things which we don't like, which 
 we cannot eliminate from the world ; for 
 instance, earthquakes, and early frosts, and 
 zero weather, and pneumonia, and other ills 
 too numerous to mention." 
 
 My wife was silent. I knew she was 
 thinking, not about the working of hard 
 general laws of political economy, but about 
 a very concrete case, — Follen's family, and 
 how she could arrange her work, the next 
 
THE PROBLEM INTRODUCED. 7 
 
 day, so as to go and visit them. I was on 
 the point of going on with my subject, far 
 enough to convince her that, because of this 
 very introduction of a labour-saving printing 
 machine, she had paid a half dollar less for 
 her subscription ; but, at that moment, the 
 door-bell rang, and, in a few moments, our 
 maid, Bridget, announced our neighbour and 
 intimate friend, Doctor Barton. 
 
 We greeted him with pleasure. Every one 
 did that, for he was a kindly, sympathetic 
 man, who entered immediately into every- 
 body's cares and troubles. He was hardly 
 what you would call " genial," not being quite 
 lethargic enough for that soothing term of 
 description ; but he was alert, interesting, 
 sympathetic, encouraging; and those are 
 qualities upon which most people, whether 
 they know it or not, base their choice of a 
 physician. 
 
 " I remembered your oft-given invitation to 
 come in and finish my cigar at your fireside," 
 remarked the doctor, " and here I am." And 
 he drew up a chair, like the privileged friend 
 
8 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 he was, and asked me, in his merry, quizzical 
 way, if I had been a good pastor all day, and 
 asked my wife what she really thought of me, 
 as an investment. 
 
 Margaret made some reply, in the same 
 light vein, and then there was silence for a 
 few moments ; it was that kind of easy, com- 
 fortable silence which can be indulged in only 
 among intimate friends. Presently I took up 
 the idea which my wife and I had been dis- 
 cussing, and briefly restated it for Doctor 
 Barton's benefit. " Margaret thinks the law 
 of competition a great blot on our civilisa- 
 tion," I said ; " but you and I know, that, 
 despite all the merciless changes which it 
 brings, it brings also many benefits. I was 
 on the point of showing her, as you came in, 
 that the same type-setting machine, which 
 throws five fellows like Follen out of work, 
 gives her a lower subscription rate for her 
 magazine or newspaper." 
 
 The doctor puffed out one or two clouds of 
 smoke, in his nervous way ; then he replied : 
 " Yes, that is true ; but I, personally, would 
 
THE PROBLEM INTRODUCED. 9 
 
 rather pay the larger price for the paper, and 
 have those poor fellows kept at their work. 
 That isn't good political economy, perhaps, 
 but I have recently seen several cases of dis- 
 tress, coming from just those causes, — labour- 
 saving inventions, — and I don't call them 
 unmitigated blessings." 
 
 That was the good doctor's way. His 
 feelings were quick, and he nearly always 
 took sides with poverty and distress, without 
 much regard for the logic of the situation. 
 
 I shook my head, in disapproval. I believe 
 that I am as deeply touched by pain and sor- 
 row as he is ; but I have a tolerably strong 
 sense of the inexorable working of law, social 
 as well as physical ; and I felt the futility of 
 sweeping back the ocean from one's dooryard. 
 " You can't hold back the progressive spirit of 
 man," I said. "He will search out new ideas, 
 new and short ways of doing things ; and, in 
 the long run, I believe this benefits the race. 
 You say you would gladly pay a half-dollar 
 more, and keep Foil en in his place ; but you 
 can afford to do that. Not so can hundreds 
 
10 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 of other individuals, who have less income 
 than you, and now can afford to take this 
 periodical." 
 
 " Is this worthy gentleman the paid can- 
 vasser for the Family Assistant?" queried the 
 doctor, facetiously. Then he added, seriously : 
 " I have heard that point urged before ; and I 
 suppose that, in the main, it is correct. But 
 I sometimes think I would like to look 
 through the books of one of those business 
 houses, after they have taken on such an 
 invention, and turned away workmen, and 
 reduced the cost of production, and lowered 
 the price of their manufactured goods. I 
 would like to see if the amount by which 
 they lower their selling price corresponds 
 exactly with the amount they save in their 
 production. Or do they make a little mar- 
 gin, off that reduced cost of production, for 
 their own pockets? I suspect that they 
 make a little for themselves, and save a little 
 for the buyers of their goods, but the work- 
 man is the loser in the transaction. The 
 transferred workman, who is put at the 
 
THE PROBLEM INTRODUCED. ll 
 
 machine, becomes a good deal of a machine 
 himself ; and the discharged workmen are 
 pushed out to face starvation and death, yes, 
 and crime, before they can get a foothold 
 again." 
 
 The hot little man was growing more and 
 more excited, as he spoke. He ran his hand 
 nervously up through his iron-gray hair, and 
 his cigar nearly went out. 
 
 " You may be correct in your surmises," I 
 said, reluctantly, "but what are you going 
 to do about it ? The employers have the 
 advantage of ' position,' as the military strat- 
 egists say ; and the workmen have to fight 
 on open, exposed ground." 
 
 "There, there, Walter!" interrupted my 
 wife, rising, " I shall not stay any longer, 
 to hear you two wrangle over those dry 
 subjects. I must go and look over the pur- 
 chases I made this afternoon, at Gcrham's, 
 and be sure they are ready for use." 
 
 She was putting up her sewing, as she 
 spoke. Doctor Barton, at the mention of 
 " Gorham's," turned and looked at her. 
 
12 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 "What did you buy at Gorham's?" he 
 asked, sharply. 
 
 Margaret regarded him for a moment in 
 silence. She knew him too well to think his 
 question one of idle curiosity, but she some- 
 times loved to tease the irascible little man. 
 " I bought a dozen stoves, and a load of hay, 
 and four new sewing-machines, and — " She 
 was mischievously keeping tally on her fingers 
 as she announced these impossible purchases. 
 (Gorham's was a dry-goods store, I may add, 
 by way of explanation.) 
 
 " No, I'm serious," interrupted Doctor 
 Barton. "What did you buy?" And he 
 arose and looked sharply at her with his 
 penetrating little gray eyes. 
 
 Margaret ceased her fun, and replied, " Why, 
 I bought some blankets, and some cotton 
 cloth, and then I picked up some very good 
 bargains in children's underwear. I — " 
 
 " Just as I thought, " ejaculated the doctor. 
 " That is what I was after ; that purchase of 
 underwear. The garments were cheap, too, 
 I'll venture to say." 
 
THE PROBLEM INTRODUCED. 13 
 
 " Yes," said Margaret, somewhat puzzled, 
 " they were." 
 
 " Dirt cheap, I've no doubt," continued the 
 doctor ; " and dirt is cheap — sometimes ; but 
 when dirt turns out to be disease, it isn't so 
 cheap. Now, what I am driving at is this. 
 Wash those undergarments thoroughly, in 
 boiling water, before you put them on the 
 children. Unless," he added, grimly, "you 
 want me here, in an official capacity." 
 
 I saw the drift of his remark. " You mean 
 — ' sweat-shop,' I suppose," said I. 
 
 " Yes, I do ; just that. I happen to know 
 that Gorham has the larger part of his work 
 done in sweat-shops, at the lower end of the 
 city. And when I've said that, I've said 
 enough to explain my remark about boiling 
 those garments." 
 
 My wife still looked incredulous. "Why, 
 they are perfectly clean," she began to ex- 
 plain. " They are white, and fairly well made, 
 and nicely folded up, and — and — why, any- 
 body would think I had brought home cloth- 
 ing from a second-hand shop on Flint Street." 
 
14 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 The doctor shrugged his shoulders, and sat 
 down, as if throwing off all responsibility. " I 
 would rather trust some of that Flint Street 
 clothing, than underwear from a sweat-shop. 
 Why, see here ! Do you, either of you, know 
 the horrors of a real sweat-shop? I'll tell 
 you." And the energetic little man was 
 on his feet again, his eyes glowing, and his 
 cigar now quite forgotten. 
 
 " Those garments were probably made," 
 said he, " in some such place as this. I tell 
 you now what I saw myself, last week, when 
 I went, with a member of the Board of Health, 
 and visited several of those dens. First, a 
 room about twice as large as this library (the 
 ceiling considerably lower, and therefore the 
 cubic feet of air much less). In that room 
 picture ten or twenty men, women, and chil- 
 dren, working at sewing-machines, or with the 
 needle ! The place hot, close, damp with the 
 perspiration of those heated, unwashed human 
 bodies. Pale, diseased creatures, bent over their 
 work, coughing, spitting, swearing. Hands 
 and faces grimy with dirt. Unmentionable 
 
THE PROBLEM INTRODUCED. 15 
 
 filth in some parts of the room, two or three 
 little children, scrofulous in appearance, ly- 
 ing on piles of garments, or playing among 
 them. The odours were almost unendurable ; 
 and — " 
 
 "There, there!" exclaimed my wife, put- 
 ting out her hands in protest. " That is 
 enough. I don't wish to hear any more. I'll 
 — I'll go and give orders to Bridget to boil 
 those garments ; if, indeed, I keep them. I 
 really think I would better give them away." 
 
 " Well," said Doctor Barton, sententiously, 
 "boil them, just the same. Don't take the 
 responsibility of spreading disease, even among 
 your dependent families. Walter, give me a 
 match ! My cigar has gone out." 
 
 Margaret presently left us, and we two fell 
 into a further conversation about the sweat- 
 shops. " There are hundreds of them, in each 
 of our larger cities," said Doctor Barton, 
 speaking more calmly. " They must be a 
 prolific source of disease." And he told me, 
 more in detail, some of the forms of disease 
 which were probably engendered in these 
 
16 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 dens, and sent out from them into better 
 classes of families. 
 
 I listened to him rather gloomily, for I 
 knew, more or less distinctly, the dreadful 
 character of such places. I partly listened 
 and partly conjectured, as to the possible 
 remedy for this crying evil. When Doctor 
 Barton finished his chapter of horrors, I said 
 to him : " All this is the exact, awful truth ; 
 I know you don't exaggerate one point. But 
 the remedy ! What is the way to prevent 
 the existence of such cesspools of distress 
 and disease ?" 
 
 The sympathetic physician's answer was 
 prompt. " I would have laws regulating the 
 size and character of all buildings and apart- 
 ments used for labour ; " he said, firmly. 
 " And, what is more, I would have such laws 
 enforced, no matter who owns the building ! 
 No matter if it is a clergyman, or a rich 
 parish. Some of our churches actually hold 
 property, tenement-houses, used as sweat- 
 shops ; and, I'm told, they are hard landlords 
 to deal with." 
 
THE PROBLEM' INTRODUCED. 17 
 
 " I'm not responsible for them ; " I said, 
 smiling, for the angry little doctor was look- 
 ing at me in a threatening manner. " I am 
 sure that my church has no such investments. 
 But, even if you could regulate the sanitary 
 conditions of these poor creatures, you have 
 not helped them much toward keeping above 
 the starvation level. What were the prices 
 paid them? I have read, but have for- 
 gotten." 
 
 " I talked with several of them, and they 
 told me that they got only forty and sixty 
 cents for making a garment which retailed 
 for three and five dollars ; and twenty cents 
 on one that sold, retail, for seventy-five cents. 
 Several of them declared that, though they 
 worked ten hours and more each day, they 
 could not earn much above four dollars a 
 week. Shameful ! Isn't it ? I think we 
 ought to have a law that would forbid any 
 employer paying less than a dollar and a half 
 a day." 
 
 "But that wouldn't do," I remonstrated. 
 " The employer might at once discharge his 
 
18 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 work-people. Then they would be worse off 
 than before ; nothing a week is certainly 
 worse than four dollars a week." 
 
 " I don't know about that," growled the 
 irate doctor, shaking his round, gray, curly 
 head. " I'm not so sure that quick starva- 
 tion isn't better than the prolonged kind." 
 
 " In some of our cities," I continued, " an 
 attempt has been made to arouse public 
 opinion, and boycott stores which sell these 
 sweat-shop garments. I recently — " 
 
 " Good idea ! " interrupted the doctor. 
 " Excellent ! That ought to bring the store- 
 keepers and contractors to their senses." 
 
 " I was about to say," I went on, " that 
 I recently received a letter from a friend of 
 mine, in a Western city, and she told me 
 that where she lived there was much public 
 indignation upon the subject, and many 
 people had signed a pledge, promising not 
 to buy garments, which they knew, from the 
 prices., must have been made in sweat-shops." 
 
 " I only hope they'll stick to it," exclaimed 
 the doctor, promptly. " Those movements 
 
THE PROBLEM INTRODUCED. 19 
 
 often start out bravely, but soon fade and 
 vanish." 
 
 " You are right," said I. " I often think 
 that, while the new and much used word 
 ' initiative ' is a good one, there is a better, 
 and that is * continuance.' I have often 
 observed that the well-worn maxim, l It is 
 the first step that costs,' breaks down in 
 actual practice ; and the first step often 
 costs least, and the subsequent steps are 
 the difficult and decisive ones. However, 
 there is one point connected with that sale 
 of sweat-shop garments, which offers diffi- 
 culties. If a hundred or a thousand women 
 pledge themselves to refrain from buying 
 such goods, and keep to their pledge, they 
 may succeed in driving those goods out of 
 the market; but, in doing so, they have put 
 them out of the reach of many people, pos- 
 sessed of less wealth than themselves, who 
 cannot afford to pay larger prices, and must 
 go without." 
 
 " Oh, I see," remarked Doctor Barton, 
 thoughtfully ; " you mean that the low price 
 
20 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 of these sweat-shop goods puts them within 
 reach of a large number of people, who, 
 otherwise, would be compelled to go without 
 them." 
 
 " Precisely ! " I assented. " And I don't 
 quite know what to say to that. It compli- 
 cates the problem greatly. It seems as 
 though the distress and disease of one class 
 of the community resulted (leaving out the 
 question of infectious dangers) in the bet- 
 terment of another class. One class seems 
 to live on the degradation and distress of 
 another class. It's a hard problem, isn't 
 it?" I added, as my friend rose and thrust 
 his hands into his pockets, and knitted his 
 brows, in silence. 
 
 He paced the room a few moments, and 
 remarked, " I sometimes think this world is 
 a dreadful blunder, and (pardon me) that 
 the Creator made awfully bad work of it." 
 
 " It sometimes looks so," I said, smiling. 
 "It has occasionally struck me that way, I 
 confess, but I then remind myself that the 
 Creator isn't through with his work ; the 
 
THE PROBLEM INTRODUCED. 21 
 
 world isn't a finished job, so to speak ; and 
 I hardly think we are warranted in judging 
 it, while it is only partly completed." 
 
 The warm-hearted man put out his hand, 
 and met my smile with one of his own 
 sympathetic, penetrating smiles, and said 
 that he must be on his way home. " I 
 thought, for the moment," said he, " that 
 I was Atlas, and was carrying the world." 
 Then his face grew sober again, as he said, 
 walking out through the hall, " What a hard, 
 hard problem this city destitution is, though ! 
 I do believe I would change some things, in 
 quick order, if I had the power." 
 
 " That is probably what you would do, 
 rash man," I said, with mock severity ; " but 
 I think that, in your well-meant reforms, you 
 would probably bring about one or two bad 
 results." 
 
 " And pray what would they be ? " he asked, 
 good-naturedly. 
 
 " Either you would bring about greater 
 confusion, in ameliorating the present condi- 
 tion of things, or you would reduce life to 
 
22 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 a bare simplicity which would make it 
 extremely uninteresting." 
 
 The doctor laughed. " The world is 
 certainly interesting, " he admitted, and 
 wrapped his fur-lined coat around his slender, 
 wiry body, and went out, with a cheery 
 "Good night." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A LESSON FROM A PIE. 
 
 A FEW days afterward, I was walking 
 home from a meeting of our Ward 
 Conference of Associated Charities, when my 
 friend Royce overtook me, and we walked 
 on together. 
 
 Royce was one of the best types of the 
 " self-made man" that I ever saw. He was 
 clear-headed, quick in all his perceptions, 
 yet controlled in his speech, self-reliant, and 
 even autocratic, — as such men often are, — 
 with a severe countenance tempered now 
 and then by a caustic smile ; but, under- 
 neath, a man of warm heart and generous 
 motives. He was a heavy stockholder in 
 the Amphion Mills, and had just come in 
 from the mills, to sit for an hour at his 
 club. 
 
 23 
 
24 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 As we passed along in front of Preston's 
 department store, my companion bowed to a 
 man who was busily engaged in arranging the 
 show-windows picturesquely and attractively. 
 
 " Excuse me," said I, " but that man's face 
 is familiar, and yet I can't quite recall him. 
 Who is he ? " 
 
 " I don't wonder that you can't place 
 him," said Royce. " He looks fifteen years 
 older than he did five years ago. His name 
 is Palfrey; you probably saw him, formerly, 
 in his own store, down near the market." 
 
 That brought the whole matter clearly be- 
 fore me. " Oh, I remember. He kept that dry 
 goods store, with the pretty show-window." 
 Then I saw, without need of explanation, 
 the meaning of the man's altered circum- 
 stances. " It's the oft-repeated story, I sup- 
 pose, of the department store swallowing the 
 smaller stores." 
 
 " Exactly ! " rejoined my friend. " He 
 ought not to have enlarged his business, 
 and tried to compete with this immense 
 department concern. They are a part of a 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 25 
 
 syndicate, you know, and they can buy vast 
 quantities of goods, and can distribute them 
 through their various branches, and under- 
 sell and kill out any smaller competing 
 concern. That is what they have done for 
 Palfrey and his employes ; all swallowed up. 
 And there is Clary & Co., and that paper- 
 hanging store, Holloway's ! Both of them, 
 and many others, closed up, and employers 
 and employes taken in on salaries, to work 
 at the same business, under Preston's roof." 
 
 "I have seen some of the results of that 
 department store system," I remarked, sadly. 
 " I have seen the changes that have come to 
 several families through that absorption of 
 the small stores. In one case the curtailing 
 of expenses kept a promising young lad away 
 from college ; and in another case, the break- 
 ing up of a household lost a good coachman 
 his job, and the family have steadily fallen 
 ever since. One of the girls has taken a 
 place in a family as second girl, but the father 
 cannot find work for which he is fitted, and 
 he has drunk himself almost to death." 
 
26 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 " Well," exclaimed Royce, tossing back his 
 head, and squaring his shoulders, "there's 
 nothing to be done about it. It's simply a 
 question of the survival of the fittest. The 
 strong survive ; the men of power, and reso- 
 lute will. I fancy I'm a bit of that sort my- 
 self. But the Wars of the Roses and the 
 Crusades called for no more pluck and endur- 
 ance and strategy than does the commercial 
 and mercantile war of the present day." 
 
 I made no reply, at the moment. I was 
 recalling the white hair and expressionless 
 face of the man whom I had seen in the 
 show-window of Preston's. I observed how 
 aged the man had grown since I saw him in 
 his own store, then apparently hopeful, happy. 
 And this was only one case out of many now 
 happening in all the cities and large towns of 
 the country. 
 
 " You say there is nothing to be done about 
 it," I began. " Do you mean to say that 
 tyranny and cruelty are necessary elements 
 in our boasted nineteenth century civilisa- 
 tion?" 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 27 
 
 Royce emitted a prolonged whistle. Most 
 people, seeing and hearing him at that mo- 
 ment, would have set him down as a hard, 
 cold, cynical man ; but I knew that the whis- 
 tle was a signal to himself to put the brakes 
 on, a signal to his will to restrain his emo- 
 tions of sympathy and anger. I knew that 
 all his trained power of self-control were often 
 needed to preserve that cynical expression of 
 face, and to keep down the violent emotions 
 of justice and pity in his volcanic heart. But 
 he did it, nearly always; and most people 
 called him cold and heartless ; and he — well, 
 he smiled the same old cynical smile. 
 
 " Yes, I repeat/' said he, " there is nothing 
 you can do about it. I don't say that the 
 situation is good, bad, or indifferent ; I say, 
 only, that I see no way to help it. Herbert 
 Spencer has shown — " 
 
 " There, there ! " I protested, laughingly, 
 " I knew you would quote him. But I don't 
 care what he thinks ; what I ask is, — what 
 you think." 
 
 " Well, pastor," said Royce, with mock re- 
 
28 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 spect and reverence in his tones, " I beg to 
 say that I think as Spencer thinks. That's 
 all. You knew that before ; yes, and you 
 know Spencer's social theories as well as I 
 do." 
 
 " Not quite as well," I said. " I have read 
 him less carefully than you have. But, leav- 
 ing that, what do you say to a little whole- 
 some legislation upon these matters ? I don't 
 urge this myself, but my friend, Doctor Bar- 
 ton, — you know him, — says that we ought 
 to draft a few bills, and lay them before the 
 Legislature, and compel some sort of fair play 
 between these big department stores and the 
 smaller dealers." 
 
 " H'm ! " ejaculated Royce, contemptuously. 
 " As you know, I gave a good deal of time to 
 reading law, a few years ago. Well, you 
 take my word for it ! There is no way of 
 framing a law that will remedy this supposed 
 evil of the department store. Moreover, I 
 don't believe in so much special legislation ; 
 it is petty, and confusing, and ineffective." 
 
 "Spencer again?" I asked, with a laugh. 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 29 
 
 And then I added, fearing that I might have 
 irritated him, "I agree pretty closely with 
 you, as you well know. I am only trying to 
 draw out some sort of argument on the 
 opposite side. In fact, if you had been at 
 church, Sunday before last, — perhaps you 
 were ; don't protest ! I always assume that 
 you are not, unless you say you are — " 
 
 " Oh, I see ! You are not so generous in 
 your construction of human conduct as is 
 the law ; you believe a man guilty until 
 he proves himself innocent." 
 
 " Not so," I replied, keeping up the chaff- 
 ing. "I accept it as proved that you were 
 there, since you say you were. And, of 
 course, you heard what I said about ' com- 
 petition.' " 
 
 My friend nodded, now growing serious 
 again. " Yes ; and if I recall your main 
 idea, it was that competition is closely allied 
 to the most fundamental instinct in human 
 nature, namely, the instinct of self-pres- 
 ervation." 
 
 " That was my point. I hold that com- 
 
30 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 petition rests on an ineradicable instinct of 
 the human race ; to uproot it, would be to 
 uproot the race. In commercial competition 
 there are at least two elements : one is the 
 same element that is present in all sports and 
 games, the element of emulation, and asser- 
 tion of superior strength or skill ; but that 
 is the less important element. The stronger, 
 more persistent, more impregnable element 
 is the eager desire to progress, to advance, 
 to do more and better to-day than yesterday, 
 and more and better to-morrow than to-day. 
 That is what has brought the race up from 
 mud huts, and canoes, and dripping raw 
 flesh, to palaces, and railroads, and all the 
 arts of civilised life." 
 
 " Very good ! " said Royce, with a laugh ; 
 " I don't need to quote Herbert Spencer to 
 you. You are getting on very well yourself. 
 You are stating my side as well as I could. 
 Now what are you going to do about it ? 
 All this assertion of individual power brings 
 suffering and distress to the unsuccessful, to 
 the weaker ones, at every step of advance. 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 31 
 
 Let the principle of competition, or self- 
 assertion, have the clearest possible field, as 
 it must ! Then what about these sad cases 
 which confront you, so often, in your paro- 
 chial rounds ? " 
 
 I was silent. I knew very well that I 
 had no remedy to offer. I could palliate 
 a few of the maladies, as the physicians say, 
 by doles of money, or by helping men, out 
 of work, to find new positions ; but, for the 
 malady itself, apparently increasing yearly, 
 in our great cities, I saw no cure. 
 
 I said something to this effect, and my 
 companion added : " I have given money, 
 with some readiness, to support ' homes for 
 orphans,' and ' widows' societies,' and ' relief 
 bureaus ; ' but they sometimes seem to me 
 sadly ineffective ; they do not meet the real 
 problem. They increase in number, but the 
 destitution itself seems to increase in a 
 greater ratio. To tell the truth, I am grow- 
 ing rather tired of throwing my money 
 away. I would put money, yes, and effort, 
 into some radical curative measure, if I 
 
32 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 could see such a field of reform ; but I don't 
 see it." 
 
 Presently we separated, with a warm 
 grasp of the hand ; for we understood each 
 other, Royce and I; and the clear-headed, 
 warm-hearted, self -controlled man was always 
 a tonic and a help to me. He sauntered 
 off to his club, and I bought a newspaper, 
 and returned to my home. 
 
 As I glanced through the columns of the 
 paper, after tea, my eye caught the large 
 headline, " Strike on the New Railroad ! " 
 and as I glanced through the paragraph, I 
 learned that the labourers had struck, in a 
 body, three hundred of them, and the work 
 was at a standstill. Then, lower down was 
 a second item. An agent in Montreal had 
 been telegraphed, and would send two hun- 
 dred French Canadians to-morrow. Also a 
 gang of one hundred Italian labourers would 
 be available, the day following, when the 
 
 S and F steamship arrived from 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 The old story. I knew what the result 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 33 
 
 would be. The reduced wages, against 
 which the men had struck, would be kept 
 down, the work would go on, after a day 
 or two of delay, a large number of foreign 
 labourers would be settled in the city, a few 
 of the old workers would be taken back, 
 and one or two hundred native labourers 
 would be out of work. What would become 
 of their families? Alas, the charity work- 
 ers, and the clergymen, and the overseers 
 of the poor would have to meet the demand, 
 somehow. And, do the best that all these 
 relief agencies could, that strike meant the 
 permanent sinking down, into lower levels 
 of life, of a large number of human be- 
 ings. Surely, the city problem of poverty 
 and crime grew no simpler. 
 
 As I scanned further the pages of my 
 newspaper, I read the following impassioned 
 appeal, made by a Salvation Army speaker. 
 As I re-read it now, I see that there are one or 
 two suggestive thoughts in it, which might 
 have led, then and there, if my mind had been 
 ready for it, to the plan of our farm-colony, 
 
34 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 which we later developed. I will give a part 
 of this appeal. " Three millions of poor peo- 
 ple are rotting in the slums of our great 
 cities. They constitute our ' Israel in Egypt.' 
 They are our fellow citizens, brothers and 
 daughters of our common humanity. They 
 cry to us for bread, and we give them a stone ; 
 they ask for fish, and we offer a scorpion. 
 The best that we offer them is the rending 
 of the tender ties of kindred, the branding 
 with the stigma of pauperdom, the casting 
 them into the Nile of indigence and degenera- 
 tion ; or we place them under cruel taskmas- 
 ters, to build our great treasure-cities, thus 
 killing them off, and reducing by unnatural 
 death our pressing evil." 
 
 " But their numbers increase with a rapidity 
 that threatens to make the disease of pauper- 
 dom as chronic and severe in our land as in 
 the oldest civilisation of the Eastern Hemi- 
 sphere." 
 
 " It is time, therefore, that we called a halt 
 to our present methods, examined their utility, 
 and asked ourselves as a nation the question, 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 35 
 
 'Is there no way out for these suffering 
 masses ? no Canaan which they may colonise ? 
 no Moses, who, under God, may afford them 
 deliverance from a condition so painful, that, 
 unless deliverance be forthcoming, and that 
 speedily, anarchy and bloodshed must await 
 us in the not distant future ? ' " 
 
 A day or two afterward, as I was starting 
 out on my round of parish calls, the door-bell 
 rang. I was in the hall, putting on my coat, 
 and I answered the bell myself. A young 
 woman stood on the doorstep, and she seemed 
 a little surprised to meet me at the door. She 
 came in, on my invitation. She was about 
 twenty-five years old, but seemed much worn 
 and faded. After hesitating a moment, she 
 asked if I were the minister. 
 
 I said that I was, and then waited. 
 
 "I — I rather wanted — well, are you — 
 please sir, are you married ? " 
 
 That was a somewhat peculiar inquiry ; but 
 I have had many peculiar experiences in my 
 varied professional life, and I have learned to 
 take everything as it comes, and I am not 
 
36 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 so easily confused as I was once. " Yes, I am 
 married. Why do you ask ? " 
 
 Then, as I watched her face, I saw signs 
 that made me add, " Would you like to see 
 my wife ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes ! That is what I want," she 
 exclaimed, trying to arrange some bits of 
 faded finery about her ill-dressed figure. 
 
 So I called Bridget, and she took charge of 
 the poor forlorn creature, not without evident 
 distrust ; for Bridget was a trifle exclusive in 
 her judgments and tastes. 
 
 That evening, at tea, my wife gave me an 
 account of the young woman's visit. It seems 
 that, a year before, she had come in from the 
 country, with a small hoard of money, enough 
 to keep her for a week. She expected to find 
 work in some store, without much delay ; but 
 situations were scarce, she had no trade, and 
 all the employment that she could obtain was 
 a position as saleswoman, in a department 
 store. The wages were pitifully small, — five 
 dollars a week. Many of the other girls in 
 the store lived at home, or with relatives, and 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 37 
 
 thus could afford to work for this small 
 amount. She tried hard to keep within her 
 means, and lived in a bare room, on a back 
 street, and provided her own plain food. 
 Thus she struggled on,' week after week. 
 Then she fell sick, and stayed out of the store 
 for a few days. When she went back, she 
 was told at the desk that her place had been 
 given to another. As she turned away, hope- 
 less, one of the men in the store, the head of 
 one of the departments, asked her to wait a 
 moment; and, after a brief talk with the 
 manager, in the office, he told her that he 
 had secured a place for her in his department. 
 She was deeply grateful to him, and thanked 
 him; but she somehow wished it had been 
 somebody else who had done her this kind- 
 ness. 
 
 Afterward this man was very considerate 
 to her, though too familiar. But what could 
 she do ? She tried to think that he was act- 
 ing out of kindness of heart; and the other 
 girls did not seem to mind the men's liberties 
 with them. Soon he made her a present or 
 
38 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 two, and she foolishly accepted them. After 
 that came a visit to the theatre, and to a 
 dancing party, several girls from the store 
 and several young men being of the party. 
 
 After that, the man's evil designs ran the 
 usual course. A supper, following one of 
 the theatre parties, and wine ; and, after that, 
 — degradation and ruin. 
 
 It was not the first case of the kind I had 
 known, but it seemed sad, horrible. " Why 
 did she come here ? " I asked. 
 
 " She has just been discharged from the 
 Maternity Asylum," said my wife. "She 
 seems to me to be in just the state of mind 
 to appreciate help." 
 
 " And the child ? " I inquired. 
 
 " Dead. It lived only a few hours." 
 
 I sat awhile, buried in thought. I knew 
 that my good wife had done and would do 
 whatever could be done for the poor creature 
 who had appealed to her. I was thinking, 
 rather, of the economic conditions which had 
 led to this girl's ruin ; of course she had a 
 measure of personal responsibility, herself, 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 39 
 
 and was so far culpable ; but how overpower- 
 ing the temptations had been around her ! 
 
 " Has she any near relatives ? " I asked. 
 
 " Yes, a mother, and two sisters, younger 
 than herself. She has not written to them 
 for several months." 
 
 After a silence, I again added, " Did she 
 say why she came here, to our house, rather 
 than to some other ? " 
 
 " Yes ; she heard you preach, a few even- 
 ings, last autumn, and she had no regular 
 church connections. I shall see her again, 
 to-morrow, and shall try to have her taken 
 into a family just out of town." 
 
 Thus the burden of the city problem 
 weighed upon me more and more heavily. 
 
 Almost a fortnight after this, I invited un- 
 friend Royce to tea. We have tea at our 
 house, and not a late dinner ; my wife gave 
 up the custom of the late dinner with a sigh. 
 but we have so many and such varieties of 
 people come in to sit down with us at table, 
 that we found the tea less pretentious and 
 more practicable. 
 
40 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 Royce's wife was away on a visit, and I 
 gave him his choice of several dates. On the 
 evening which he chose, it happened that 
 Doctor Barton also came in. He, poor fellow, 
 is a bachelor, and has carte blanche to come 
 and go, in our home, about as he chooses. 
 He and Royce had met, occasionally, at the 
 club, and on one or two committees, but had 
 not really come to understand each other. 
 How they would get on together, I did not 
 know. I was a little afraid lest Royce's pres- 
 ence might repress the doctor's effervescence, 
 or that Royce might not quite understand and 
 enjoy the doctor, in case he gave himself his 
 usual freedom of expression. However, it 
 all turned out well. Royce liked Doctor 
 Barton, from the first. He was rather taci- 
 turn himself, and seemed to take pleasure in 
 the doctor's confidential, demonstrative ways 
 of approaching him. 
 
 Of course the conversation, after drifting 
 about over various subjects, was sure to reach 
 some economic or sociological theme, and 
 there to stay. We were all interested in 
 
A LESSON FKOM A PIE. 41 
 
 such matters. One incident after another 
 was referred to, in a rather hopeless way ; 
 for each of us felt how difficult the problems 
 of modern society were. I remember the 
 conversation, from this point on, with some 
 distinctness, because it led to such important 
 results, and was often referred to, by my wife 
 and me, afterward. 
 
 We were about half through tea, and some 
 remark of Royce's led Doctor Barton to ex- 
 claim, " Well, the upshot of the matter is, 
 that there isn't room enough in the cities. 
 This city of ours is crowded to death, both in 
 respect to tenements and shops ; all through 
 the lower end of our city three people are 
 trying to live where there is room for only 
 one, or, perhaps, two." 
 
 " Yes, that is about the whole story," said 
 Royce, " and no legislation can remedy it ; 
 unless," he added, with one of his much-mis- 
 understood cynical smiles, " we pass the kind 
 of law which Dean Swift suggested for Ire- 
 land, whereby poor parents could kill and 
 eat their children." 
 
42 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 " Only think," remarked my wife, after a 
 pause, " what a vast amount of room there 
 is in the country regions, around the cities ! 
 Why can't these crowded, sick, hungry people 
 be allowed to live in the country ? " 
 
 " Oh, that's been tried," exclaimed Doctor 
 Barton. " These crowded-out people in the 
 cities have not only been allowed to go into 
 the country, but, in many cases, they have 
 been helped to go out and settle upon farms. 
 New England is full of abandoned farms, 
 and, at various times, families from the cities 
 have been taken out and started in farm life ; 
 but the scheme doesn't work." 
 
 " That is quite true," I added. " I have 
 known about several cases, and the people 
 all gave it up in a short time." 
 
 " Exactly why did they give it up ? " asked 
 Royce. " I know that such attempts have 
 generally failed, but I never happened to be 
 in close enough touch with such a scheme, 
 to get at the real working of it. The trouble 
 cannot be wholly with the land and its power 
 of production ; fifty years ago, and during 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 43 
 
 many generations back of that time, men 
 farmed successfully, and brought up credit- 
 able families, and saved a little something 
 for a rainy day." 
 
 I helped Doctor Barton to a piece of cold 
 meat, passed the toast to my wife, and 
 replied to Colonel Royce : " No, the difficulty 
 isn't with the land ; the soil does not change 
 its character ; it is practically about as strong, 
 or even stronger now, than when my grand- 
 father supported his large family of nine 
 from it ; the trouble is with the people them- 
 selves. It is hard to teach them how to 
 farm, though that can usually be done, with 
 patience. But they are restless, and long for 
 the excitement of the city again. That is 
 the root of the trouble. They hate the soli- 
 tude ; they always say they are ' lonesome,' 
 and, before long, you find them creeping 
 back to their old haunts, in city rookeries, 
 and sharing dry bread and beer, and the 
 pickings of garbage cans." 
 
 " So that is the trouble, is it ? " said 
 Colonel Royce. " I have heard that state- 
 
44 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 merit made, before, but I was not sure of 
 its correctness. I have heard, too, that the 
 wholesale farming in the West has cut out 
 the smaller farming of the East. Those 
 Western farmers, I am told, by raising their 
 wheat and other products on such a large 
 scale, have been able to undersell Eastern 
 farmers, and thus push them out of the 
 field of competition. How is that?" 
 
 Doctor Barton here took up the subject. 
 " I have driven out through the rural districts 
 a great many times," he said, " and looked 
 into the matter a little, and my opinion is 
 that the small farmers of the Eastern States 
 could compete successfully with the extensive 
 farms of the West, if they would put more 
 brains, and system, and hard work into it." 
 
 The doctor spoke defiantly, as usual ; but 
 we were not to be held responsible for the 
 lack which he had pointed out. We remained 
 silent ; and he continued : " It is a very diffi- 
 cult thing to hire competent labour on the 
 farm. Even when the cities are crowded, 
 and men work for starvation wages, and are 
 
A LESSON EKOM A PIE. 45 
 
 glad enough to accept them, the farmers are 
 looking in vain, up and down the road, for 
 possible workers. A large proportion of the 
 men who ' hire out,' to-day, on these farms, 
 are foreigners. A few years ago they were 
 chiefly French Canadians ; but those fellows 
 seemed to have a rather handy way with 
 tools, and they have slipped quietly into the 
 trades, carpenters mainly, in the cities. So 
 that Italians have come in, and Poles, and 
 Hungarians, and a few Syrians ; they learn 
 our language slowly, and are too ready to 
 resent fancied injustice with a knife or club. 
 There have been some very bad happenings 
 on farms, especially isolated farms, during 
 the past five years. The result is," con- 
 tinued the doctor, " that the farms are poorly 
 carried on ; they are not half developed." 
 
 I quite agreed with that. " There is a 
 shiftless quality about a great deal of this 
 Eastern farming," I said, "which you don't 
 see on those big Western farms." Then I 
 added, as nobody else spoke, " However, 
 that doesn't bear very closely upon the 
 
46 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 problem of transplanting poor city families 
 to the country ; they vote it ' slow ' and 
 ' dull/ and go back and starve in the city." 
 
 " Or live off some charitable society or 
 church," added Colonel Royce, grimly. 
 
 At this point, my wife passed the pre- 
 serves to our guests, and remarked, casually : 
 " It really is a little strange that these people 
 from the slums and rookeries are so averse 
 to country life. It seems to me to have 
 many attractions ; and I have observed that 
 many of our friends, who have country- 
 houses, stay out in the country, or at the 
 seashore, longer and longer each year. Why, 
 there are the Ranletts ! They didn't come 
 back to town until November, and they 
 went away, I think, as early as April." 
 
 Nobody added any suggestion to this 
 remark. Very likely each was recalling 
 instances of the same sort. For my own 
 part, I was engaged in carefully cutting a 
 large mince pie, which was to serve as a 
 sort of dessert to our rather nondescript 
 bill of fare. 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 4 rf 
 
 Presently Doctor Barton spoke. " You are 
 quite right about that, Mrs. Wentworth. I 
 have noticed a growing change in this 
 matter during the past five years. I notice 
 it because of the visits I now am compelled 
 to make to families at their country homes, 
 whereas, formerly, a large number of my 
 visits were made when the families were 
 within the city. Still, this growing tendency 
 toward country life, on the part of the 
 wealthier part of our people, does not con- 
 flict with the feverish desire for city life 
 which is shown by transplanted families 
 who attempt country life. Because most of 
 the wealthier class, who have country-seats, 
 carry with them and gather about them 
 quite a considerable group of friends and 
 dependents, so that they experience none 
 of that loneliness, which seems to be an in- 
 separable part of the regular farmer's life." 
 
 " But why don't the farmers get together ? " 
 broke in my wife. " If loneliness, isolation, 
 is the great bane of country life, why don't 
 they meet oftener, and have clubs, and hold 
 
48 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 teas ? Then they could be company for one 
 another." 
 
 Doctor Barton smiled indulgently, and 
 replied, " If you will recall the way in which 
 the farms are arranged, in any country town, 
 you will see that not much social life is 
 possible. Each farmhouse is set down in the 
 midst of a lot of land, containing fifty or a 
 hundred acres ; and, to reach a neighbour's 
 house, a farmer's family must travel at least 
 a quarter of a mile, and usually much farther 
 than that." 
 
 Doctor Barton seemed to be thinking of 
 something else, while he was saying this, and, 
 after a moment's pause, he began again. 
 " When our farmers settled their farms, they 
 evidently had no suspicion of the funda- 
 mental demand of human nature for social 
 life. Each man put his farm squarely down 
 in the middle of his land, getting as near a 
 highway as he could. But human beings evi- 
 dently need something besides land ; and the 
 young people grow up and start for the cities, 
 leaving the farms, depopulating the country 
 
 
A LESSON FEOM A PIE. 49 
 
 districts, and thereby deepening the loneliness 
 of those who remain. Now, if those farm- 
 houses were only nearer together — " 
 
 All this time I was engaged in cutting the 
 pie, with careful exactitude, into eight pieces. 
 While I was busy with the manual part of 
 this operation, my mind was running upon 
 the problem of rural isolation ; and I said, 
 " If the farmhouses could be moved, or if 
 new ones were being built, then this greatest 
 bane of country life — for such I believe it 
 to be — could be met, at least in a measure ; 
 for the houses could be put at adjacent 
 corners of the farm lots, and thus would 
 stand in groups." 
 
 What I had in mind was merely a group 
 of four houses, but Doctor Barton's quick 
 perceptions outrun my own, and he suddenly 
 burst out, " Why, my dear man, you are solv- 
 ing that problem better with your hands than 
 with your head." And he pointed to the pie, 
 now cut up into its eight even portions. 
 
 " You certainly are," he continued, 
 warmly. " Just let me show you ! Call 
 
50 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 that area of pie a land-area of two or three 
 miles ! You have divided it into eight equal 
 parts, practically, ignoring the curved ends, 
 eight isosceles triangles, if my Euclid has 
 not wholly deserted me ; now, suppose you 
 call those eight pieces eight farms, and you 
 place a farmhouse on each, at the apex. 
 There you have eight families, close together, 
 each with its own land reaching back and 
 away, a half-mile, if you like." 
 
 We all sat in silence, looking reflectively at 
 the pie. Then an idea struck Colonel Royce. 
 " You have cut the pie," said he, " into only 
 eight parts. If you had so wished, you could 
 have cut it into twelve parts, or even more 
 than that. Then you would have made 
 places for twelve or more farmhouses and 
 families all grouped together, and thus there 
 would be still greater social gain." 
 
 We were approximating, step by step, to 
 the plan which afterward matured so happily. 
 Already the project of a colony was taking 
 shape in at least two of our minds. Doctor 
 Barton and I both saw that, if the funda- 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 51 
 
 mental obstacle to farm life lay in its social 
 isolation, this obstacle could be overcome 
 by such a division and allotment of land as 
 we were working out. Then the next step 
 was inevitable ; why not plant a colony of 
 unsuccessful, destitute people, from the city 
 slums, on such a group of farms ? 
 
 Doctor Barton gave expression to this idea. 
 " I believe it could be done," he exclaimed. 
 " I believe that a tract of land, a mile or two 
 square, could be cut up in this way, into one 
 or two hundred triangular lots, with the 
 sharp ends at the centre, each having its 
 farmhouse and outbuildings, close up to the 
 centre ; and thus a group would be formed, 
 which would be large enough to furnish all 
 the social life that could be desired. I would 
 have those lots come not quite to a centre, 
 but they should converge on a plot of land, 
 circular in shape, whereon could be located 
 a schoolhouse, a church, public hall, and other 
 needful buildings." 
 
 By this time, Margaret, my wife, recalled 
 us to the immediate demands of the hour, 
 
52 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 and, with laughter, and much joking, we fell 
 upon the pie, and soon demolished the larger 
 part of it. 
 
 Then we adjourned to my study, and con- 
 tinued our conversation. 
 
 "If you recollect," said Colonel Royce, 
 seating himself in a large armchair, " certain 
 of the New England villages were arranged 
 on a plan somewhat like this of yours. South 
 Hadley was one, and Longmeadow, if I re- 
 member correctly, was another. They were 
 arranged so that the farmhouses stood closely 
 side by side, and fronted or abutted on one 
 highway, a score or two houses on each side 
 of the road." 
 
 " Yes, I recollect perfectly," said Doctor 
 Barton. " I have visited both those villages. 
 And that method of grouping was not only 
 the most convenient for common defence 
 against the attacks of Indians, but it pro- 
 duced a social life and strength which en- 
 dures even to-day, preserving those villages 
 as intelligent, attractive communities ; while 
 other more scattered villages around them 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 53 
 
 have long since disintegrated and degen- 
 erated." 
 
 " You see, colonel," said I, laughing, " the 
 doctor is so enthusiastic that he can almost 
 do what the alchemists could not do, — 
 turn the baser metals into gold ; the facts 
 which you adduce to combat his plan of 
 a colony, he changes at once into testimony 
 for it." 
 
 " That's fair enough," replied Eoyce ; " the 
 doctor might not have made a good judge, 
 but he would have made an excellent advo- 
 cate, if he had turned that way. He knows 
 that it is better to mould and direct facts 
 than to dispute them. However, I don't care 
 to take the part of prosecuting attorney 
 against this scheme. I merely wish to dis- 
 cuss it and find its weak spots. Now, I don't 
 see that there is anything especially new in 
 this plan, except the laying out of the farms. 
 I admit that such a grouping of families 
 would be rather novel. But whether it would 
 be of enough importance to save the colony 
 from the fate of decay and failure which has 
 
54 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 overtaken almost, if not all, other colonisa- 
 tion schemes, — there is the question. Now, 
 doctor, you have heard of Brook Farm ? 
 And — " 
 
 " Pooh, pooh ! " exclaimed Doctor Barton, 
 running his hand up through his wiry gray 
 hair until his head looked like a porcupine ; 
 "I can name as long a list as you can. I 
 have heard as much as most people about the 
 Rappists, and the Oneida Community, and 
 Harmony, and Redands, and a half-dozen 
 others ; but I give those foolish attempts 
 little weight as evidence in such a plan as this 
 which we are now discussing. They were all, 
 without exception, variations of some theory 
 of Socialism or Communism. And I would 
 not. have this farm scheme tried under any 
 such theory." 
 
 " No more would I," I ventured to add. 
 " Those colonies and communities failed be- 
 cause they did not face the fact that human 
 nature is selfish. ' Man is as lazy as circum- 
 stances will permit.' I heard a wise old man 
 say that years ago, and I have verified it 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 55 
 
 often since. Yes, human nature is selfish, 
 and, more than that, is short-sighted, not far- 
 sighted, in its selfishness ; so that a lazy 
 member of a communistic group will disregard 
 the remote and indirect good, even though it 
 be greater, and will grasp the near and direct, 
 though often smaller, good." 
 
 " Well, that's natural," said Colonel Royce, 
 smiling. " I confess I couldn't work really 
 hard, to earn a dollar, if only one cent of that 
 dollar were coming to me, and ninety-nine 
 other cents were to come from the work of 
 ninety-nine other men. The work would be 
 easier for me if I knew that the one hundred 
 cents which I earned were coming directly 
 into my own pocket. In other words, if my 
 earnings must go into a common fund, and 
 there mingle with the earnings of ninety-nine 
 other workmen, and then one dollar be ex- 
 tracted from that fund, to come back to me, 
 — well, I wouldn't find my work so interest- 
 ing, and I do believe I would let up a little 
 on my exertions, hoping that the other fel- 
 lows would not let up on theirs, and that my 
 
56 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 pay would come out of the common fund all 
 right." 
 
 I could not repress a smile, as I tried to 
 fancy the self-reliant, energetic colonel re- 
 stricted and hampered by the fetters of Social- 
 ism. For I have found that theory, especially 
 in its extreme forms, likely to make easy the 
 condition of the shiftless and indolent, and to 
 paralyse the forces of the strong and enthusi- 
 astic. I made some remark to this effect ; 
 and Doctor Barton sharply added, " They 
 are generally sore-heads, those extreme social- 
 ists ; envious, lazy people, who have failed, 
 or won't try and try hard, and would like to 
 get hold of some money in an easy way. 
 Great as are the evils of our present system, 
 they are as nothing to the chaos and socio- 
 logical suicide, which is involved in that 
 shallow scheme. However," he added, with 
 his love of justice, " in certain respects, we 
 all concede something to the general social 
 good. We modify our individualism, and 
 necessarily so, but only in a very moderate 
 degree ; in fact, the least is best, I think." 
 
A LESSON FKOM A PIE. 57 
 
 Thus an hour passed, in friendly comment 
 and suggestive criticism. The only really new 
 point raised came from the skeptical colonel, 
 who said flatly that he didn't believe the poor 
 wretches from the sweat-shops and slums 
 could be induced to leave them, even with 
 the most roseate picturings of a country life. 
 " They are infatuated with the rush and roar 
 of a great metropolis," he said. " They have 
 city fever ; it is in their blood. An unnatural 
 hunger and thirst for excitement burns them 
 up." 
 
 " Well, I have seen a good many cases of 
 that disease," replied Doctor Barton, with a 
 touch of sadness in his voice, " and you may 
 be correct in your deductions, but I doubt it ; 
 on the whole, I doubt it. Wisdom and pa- 
 tience would be greatly needed, but I do 
 believe that if those poor half-starved wretches 
 were approached in the right way, they could 
 be induced to try the experiment of country 
 life." 
 
 Then the doctor's manner grew more ani- 
 mated, and he turned and addressed Colonel 
 
58 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 Royce, individually. " Of course, my dear 
 sir, you and I are partly strangers to each 
 other, but we know each other by reputation, 
 and somewhat through our friend here (point- 
 ing toward me) ; he is a sort of social clearing- 
 house, I find. Now this scheme appeals to 
 me strongly, and I will tell you what I will 
 do. I will put ten thousand dollars into it, if 
 you will put in twenty thousand, and get some 
 of your friends to do the same. This may 
 seem rather hasty on my part, but it isn't 
 wholly so ; I have thought of the problem of 
 city poverty a great deal, and I may add that 
 I have felt it a great deal also. I am thrown 
 into the midst of it constantly. And I have 
 been led by my reflections, part way toward 
 the concrete solution which has been reached 
 here to-night. I had gotten, in my thinking, 
 as far as this : I saw the destitution and suf- 
 fering in fhe cities, and that it resulted from 
 overcrowding, and excessive competition. I 
 also knew that the country districts were 
 sparsely settled ; plenty of room there. More- 
 over, I have been led to believe, from the 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 59 
 
 opinions of specialists, that a good living was 
 about as sure, from a farm, now, as ever in 
 the past ; and my ancestors, for several gen- 
 erations, got a fair living from farms. But I 
 was aware, sadly aware by experience of two 
 or three cases, that the city fascinated its vic- 
 tims, as the serpent is said to do, before it 
 devoured them. My families, which I placed 
 on farms, slipped back into the cities, to suffer 
 and die, preferring it to the loneliness of the 
 country. That was the point which I had 
 reached, and there I stopped. I believed that 
 the salvation of the city hordes was to be 
 found in rural life. The wealthier classes 
 have long since found it so; only, they are 
 able to regulate their affairs so as to sip 
 the best of city life, in winter, and yet gain 
 the good of the best months of the year in the 
 country." 
 
 The doctor was making what seemed to me 
 an excellent speech, and Colonel Royce's quiz- 
 zical look had changed into a kindlier smile. 
 He seemed interested. Doctor Barton sud- 
 denly stopped, paused a moment, and said 
 
60 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 more quietly, " Well, I'm no promoter. Un- 
 derstand that ! I just wish to say that this 
 plan of a circular colony seems to me to carry 
 out, reasonably, the line of thought which has 
 occupied my mind not a little for several years 
 past. So I repeat my offer, Colonel Royce, 
 of that sum of money which I named. I am 
 not a rich man, but I have no family, and I 
 have saved my pennies. Now, you have a 
 wife, and greater expenses than I ; but the 
 world, the omniscient, officious world, says that 
 you are a very rich man, and I know you give 
 freely to good causes. I think we both feel, 
 that if we have saved and earned our money, 
 we have a right to enjoy spending it, rather 
 than leaving it to somebody else to spend. 
 There ! I'm through. I didn't mean to say 
 so much." And the doctor backed away 
 toward the fireplace, and leaned against the 
 mantel. Colonel Royce stood silent for a 
 moment or two. I wondered what was in his 
 mind. I was a little anxious about him. I 
 must confess that I was deeply interested in 
 the colonisation scheme, but I dared not say 
 
A LESSOR FROM A PIE. 61 
 
 very much about it to the colonel. He was a 
 man to quickly suspect designs, and he liked 
 to reach his own conclusions, without being 
 pushed. So I picked up a recently published 
 book, on " Benevolence and Progress," and 
 looked for an article which I wished to show 
 to Doctor Barton. 
 
 I did not find just what I sought, but I 
 came across a paragraph which was signifi- 
 cant, and I read it aloud. I here transcribe 
 it: 
 
 "If, for instance, the $50,000,000 now 
 spent annually by our nation on merely 
 affording temporary relief to this municipal 
 sore, should be devoted to the planting of 
 the three million of our surplus population 
 upon say six million acres of fertile soil, 
 the following results, among others, would 
 be obtained : Their labour would produce 
 annually from the land at least $120,000,- 
 000 worth of food for the consumption of 
 their families. The value of the land would 
 increase from fifty to one hundred per cent., 
 
62 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 thereby affording an abundant security for 
 the investment of the capital, which would 
 be repaid within a period of ten years 
 with interest. The tax consumers would be 
 converted into tax producers, and an enor- 
 mously increased demand would be created 
 for the produce of our city manufactures, 
 while the dead weight of city taxes would 
 be simultaneously lightened by the removal 
 of the terrible incubus of a vast pauper 
 population." 
 
 We discussed the matter a little, from 
 this point of view, and, although we did 
 not agree in all respects, we saw that the 
 trend of the best thought on these problems 
 of municipal crowding was in one direction. 
 
 Presently Colonel Royce put out his hand 
 to my wife, to say good night, and after- 
 ward to the doctor and myself. But he 
 did it in a rather absent-minded way, and 
 I suspected that he was dwelling upon the 
 plan suggested, and perhaps upon Doctor 
 Barton's offer also. As he reached the door, 
 
A LESSON FROM A PIE. 63 
 
 and opened it to go out, he stopped, and 
 closed it again. " It wouldn't do any harm, 
 Mr. Wentworth," he said, addressing me, " if 
 you were to write out, more in detail, your 
 ideas of that colony. What say you to put- 
 ting down on paper your notions of the 
 scheme ? And I will try and find an evening 
 next week to come in and talk about it again. 
 Good night ! Good night ! " 
 
 With that he went out, and I knew that 
 he was considerably interested in the affair, 
 and that he would give it wise, careful 
 thought. Doctor Barton felt as I did, and 
 we agreed to meet early in the following 
 week ; and I, meanwhile, was to see my 
 friend, Mr. Gray, a young architect, and 
 make a rough draft of the village, as it 
 lay in my mind. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CIKCLE CITY ON PAPER. 
 
 IN narrating the gradual development of 
 our economic experiment, I must be care- 
 ful to omit none of the steps taken, and 
 I must try to recall them exactly in the 
 order in which we took them. One idea 
 led to another. We were taught by cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 For example, I had re-read some of the 
 essays and books on economic and philan- 
 thropic questions, and they all seemed to 
 agree on the existence of great, pressing 
 evils in our municipal life, but few of them 
 entered into a discussion of remedies ; that 
 is to say, remedies of a social, fundamental 
 nature. I was struck by their rather impo- 
 tent, hopeless way of dealing with the 
 problems ; and one day, as I revolved the 
 
 64 
 
CIRCLE CITY ON PAPER. 65 
 
 matter in my mind, I happened to witness 
 a conflagration ; a warehouse in our city 
 took fire, and was burned to the ground. 
 As I stood near the burning building, I 
 could feel a distinct current of air blowing 
 in toward it ; then I noted the great roar- 
 ing column of smoke and gas and embers 
 rushing up to the sky above the building, 
 and saw it change from its vertical course 
 to a lateral one, and go drifting away across 
 the housetops. 
 
 That made me reflect. It gave me an 
 illustration of the way in which city life 
 burns up human beings. I saw that there 
 were, at this conflagration, as at all con- 
 flagrations, three lines of activity, three 
 currents of movement : an in-draught, set- 
 ting toward the scene of the burning ; 
 second, an up-draught, as the flames con- 
 sumed the combustible materials ; third, an 
 out-draught, as the cinders and ashes floated 
 away across the country, to settle again 
 upon the earth at a distance. 
 
 That is the way with the social combus- 
 
66 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 tion which goes on in every great city. 
 First, there is the in-draught of human 
 beings from the surrounding districts : men 
 and women are drawn from the country to 
 the city in a steady current; they seek the 
 city and its excitements, as if attracted by 
 an invisible power. Second, there is the 
 unceasing conflagration of human bodies 
 and souls, as these newcomers feed the 
 flames of struggle and competition and 
 ambition. All who can live, salamander- 
 like, amid the fierce heat, survive ; but 
 the many who cannot go up in flame ; 
 they are more or less burned up ; and the 
 analogy implies that they ought to obey 
 the natural law, which would send them 
 into the third stage. The third stage is 
 the lateral current, which should carry 
 their half-consumed natures out again into 
 the country districts, there to settle and 
 regain some power and usefulness. 
 
 Thus I reflected, as I walked away from 
 the scene of the conflagration. I knew well 
 the existence of the persistent in-draught 
 
CIRCLE CITY ON PAPER. 67 
 
 from the rural districts ; and I knew equally 
 well what combustion of human materials 
 went on in the cities. What I now desired to 
 see was the setting up of a steady out-draught 
 of the inefficient, charred, hopeless members 
 of city life. And I felt as confident, at that 
 moment, as I do now, after oar experiment 
 has succeeded, that the true solution was com- 
 prised and hinted, in the three great draughts 
 of that burning warehouse. 
 
 A day or two later I spent an hour in the 
 office of my young friend, Mr. Gray, an archi- 
 tect. He was rather closely occupied in pre- 
 paring plans for a hospital, which was to be 
 built in a neighbouring town, but he kindly 
 laid them aside, and gave me the benefit of 
 his technical training, as I submitted to him 
 my theory of the new colony. 
 
 I will not recount the details of the inter- 
 view, but will gather up the results of his 
 counsel, as I submitted them to my interested 
 friends at our appointed meeting. 
 
 There was a delay of an evening or two, 
 because of conflicting engagements ; but 
 
68 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 within a week we all met, as before, at my 
 house, and resumed the subject where we had 
 left it. Naturally Doctor Barton and Colonel 
 Royce expected me to take the lead. " Have 
 you held that interview with your friend, the 
 architect ? " asked Doctor Barton, with a little 
 restless movement of his foot, habitual with 
 him when deeply interested in a subject. 
 
 Accordingly, I set forth the plan, as Mr. 
 Gray and I had worked it out. "Excuse 
 me, doctor," I said, " if I talk at some length, 
 but you have your fresh cigar, and that will 
 lighten the tedium of my long address. I 
 shall stop before you have a quarter finished 
 it." 
 
 The two men and my wife settled them- 
 selves comfortably in their chairs, and I 
 unfolded the following rough plan of our 
 experiment. 
 
 " We are all practically agreed," said I, " as 
 far as this point : that the cities, or, — to 
 take a definite case, — our own city is over- 
 crowded ; there ought to be less people within 
 our city limits, by perhaps a fifth or a sixth. 
 
CIKCLE CITY ON PAPER. 69 
 
 There isn't room for them, physically or in- 
 dustrially. We are also agreed that there is 
 an abundance of room in the rural districts, 
 on the farm lands." 
 
 Here I reverted to the instance of the 
 burning warehouse, to illustrate our problem, 
 in terms of the in-draught, up-draught, and 
 out-draught. 
 
 " Now, our problem is," I went on, " to 
 bring about a transfer of this superfluous, 
 inefficient fifth or sixth, from the city to the 
 country. Very good, but they won't go. And 
 why ? Not because there is no comfortable 
 living to be gained from farm life; I have 
 looked into that matter and have corre- 
 sponded with several friends in rural com- 
 munities, and, from all these sources, I am 
 led to believe that the comforts and some 
 of the luxuries of life are to be enjoyed in 
 the farming districts. No, that is not the 
 difficulty, as you know. The real objection, 
 as shown where a few individuals or fami- 
 lies have been scattered about in country 
 districts, lies in the isolation and loneli- 
 
70 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 ness. These people prefer the society of 
 their fellow beings to almost everything else 
 in the world, even undergoing hunger and 
 cold to gain and keep it. This fundamental 
 obstacle is removed by grouping families as 
 closely together as possible ; and when once 
 we have entered on that plan, a geometrical 
 ideal group faces us ; there is one way and 
 only one way of placing the largest possible 
 number of families within the smallest pos- 
 sible area. This inevitable conclusion has 
 been reached by us, after some groping, and 
 is exemplified in the arrangement of our 
 colony, as we hit upon it last week, and as 
 Mr. Gray and I worked it out at his office. 
 
 " The first step is (assuming that Colonel 
 Royce is interested, and can interest his 
 friends), to raise about one hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars for our * plant.' I am 
 aware that sums of that magnitude are not 
 easily raised, and yet again, they do come 
 easily when people are really and hopefully 
 interested, as I think they must be, when 
 they are told about our reasonable plan. 
 
CIRCLE CITY ON PAPER. 71 
 
 " Leaving that matter for the present, I 
 state the next step, which is that we need to 
 purchase a tract of land, not over twelve or 
 fifteen miles from this city, about two miles 
 square ; a tract containing about three or 
 four square miles, wisely selected, would suit 
 our purpose, and could be bought for ten 
 thousand dollars, or possibly for less than 
 that amount. This tract of land must have 
 a general slope toward the south ; it ought 
 to be on the southerly slope of some range 
 of hills. It must also have fairly good soil, 
 not necessarily rich river-bottom soil, but at 
 least fairly productive, and as much better 
 than that as we can select. We need a lake 
 of good water on the northern side, for 
 supplying drinking-water ; this can be con- 
 nected with our town by a pipe, and a sewer 
 can carry off all drainage to some inlet of the 
 sea, or river which has no restrictions placed 
 upon it by towns further down its course. 
 
 " The chief feature of all is, of course, the 
 arrangement of our village, or city, which- 
 ever we choose to call it." 
 
72 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 Here irrepressible Doctor Barton broke in, 
 " Call it a city ! Give it a good-sized, name ! 
 That helps, with the kind of people we are 
 to reach. Call it — call it - — " 
 
 Here my wife filled in : " Call it Circle 
 City!" 
 
 " Capital ! " responded Doctor Barton, 
 and Colonel Royce laughed. 
 
 " Yery well, Circle City it shall be," I said, 
 and I continued : 
 
 " Circle City should be arranged, as we 
 saw, in a circle. Mr. Gray and I find that 
 a hundred families can be grouped, in a 
 hundred houses, in the circular form, the 
 distance across the circle to be about two 
 thousand feet, somewhere near a third of a 
 mile. So that every family will be within a 
 third of a mile of ninety-nine other families. 
 Or, counting four or five persons to each 
 family, every person in Circle City will 
 know that there are four or five hundred 
 other human beings within a third of a mile 
 of him ; certainly that is a very different 
 state of affairs from the usual country life, 
 
CIRCLE CITY ON PAPER. 73 
 
 where the nearest neighbour is a half-mile 
 away." 
 
 " In this case," asked Colonel Royce, 
 " how near would the nearest neighbour 
 be?" 
 
 " That leads me to state," said I, " that 
 Mr. Gray and I planned to give each house a 
 frontage of sixty feet, all around the circle ; 
 that is to say, each lot of land will abut on 
 the central circle, and will occupy sixty feet 
 of its circumference. Then each house will 
 be about twenty feet wide, placed, perhaps, 
 in the middle of this distance of sixty feet. 
 That will leave twenty feet each side of each 
 house ; so, to answer your question, Colonel 
 Royce, every family will have another family 
 on either side of it, and distant only twenty 
 feet plus twenty feet, which is forty feet. Of 
 course, where the four roads enter the circle, 
 that distance will be slightly increased. 
 Indeed, the houses will be too close together 
 for good light, and Mr. Gray suggested that 
 they might alternate, one abutting closely 
 upon the street, say with a front yard of 
 
74 
 
 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 ten feet, and the next one being placed back 
 a hundred feet. But stop ! I have prepared 
 a rough sort of plan of the ground. Let me 
 show it to you ! " 
 
 So I drew from my pocket the following 
 sketch, and spread it out on the table for 
 inspection. 
 
CIRCLE CITY ON PAPER. 75 
 
 " Those lots seem pretty small," remarked 
 my wife, doubtfully, as she looked at the 
 sketch. 
 
 " Nevertheless," said I, " they represent an 
 actual frontage on that road, or street, run- 
 ning around the circle, of sixty feet." 
 
 " But the lots are very narrow as they 
 run back," said Colonel Royce. "How can 
 a man cultivate a farm that is shaped like 
 one of those ?" 
 
 " That seemed, at first, to be a difficulty," 
 I rejoined ; " but when you consider the 
 varied kinds of farming to be carried on, 
 no difficulty need arise. This is what I 
 mean. Mr. Gray suggests that all the lots 
 be alike, back to a point one hundred yards 
 from the street ; that will give about a third 
 of an acre for each house-lot. On that lot, 
 each family can have space for a vegetable 
 garden and a playground for children. So 
 far, all the lots are to be alike. Then, back 
 of that point, that is, at the rear of those 
 house-lots, the farms begin to vary in shape, 
 according to the kind of use to which they 
 
76 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 are to be put. For example, a man who 
 wishes to raise poultry and eggs, will take 
 one of the narrow farms ; and he will not 
 need as large a farm as will the man who 
 wishes to raise cattle or sheep. The man 
 who wishes to raise green vegetables for 
 market, will do better with one of the narrow 
 and smaller farms. Market - gardening, as 
 you know, is most successful where small 
 farms are worked, and worked carefully, 
 with much fertilising of the soil. Perhaps I 
 omitted to say that communication with the 
 neighbouring city (which for convenience's 
 sake, we will call ' The Metropolis,' to dis- 
 tinguish it from Circle City) is to be obtained 
 by a trolley line. If this tract of land, two 
 miles square, could be found not far from 
 a steam railroad, very good ! But whether 
 so or not, there should be a good trolley 
 road, and it should be equipped to carry 
 freight cars, as well as passenger cars." 
 
 At this point I began to feel as if I had 
 talked too long ; and I urged my friends 
 to speak freely, as to their ideas of the 
 
CIRCLE CITY ON PAPER. 77 
 
 plan. Doctor Barton was intensely inter- 
 ested in it, and had risen excitedly from 
 his chair and was pacing the room, puffing 
 furiously at his cigar. Colonel Royce was, 
 of course, less easily roused, but I felt sure 
 that he was interested. Presently he re- 
 marked : " That cutting up of the lots is 
 an important matter. I can see that it 
 might be done, however. I understand that 
 all the lots are alike, with their sixty feet 
 frontage, and running back a hundred yards. 
 Those lots you would call house-lots. Then, 
 back of that, the farms begin ; and they are 
 to vary in size and shape, according to the 
 nature of the farming which is to be carried 
 on upon each." 
 
 " Yes," I added, " and they would vary 
 in shape and size according to the char- 
 acter of the ground and the quality of the 
 soil. If a man wished to raise sheep, he 
 would need a larger farm than would a 
 man who wished to raise milk ; and it 
 could be of inferior quality of soil, because 
 sheep will pick up a good living on kind 
 
78 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 where a cow would become thin and value- 
 less." 
 
 Then I drew from my pocket another 
 rough draft, which Mr. Gray and I had 
 prepared. " This is something like what I 
 mean/' said I. " The lots should be cut 
 up in some such fashion as this ; but this 
 is not a final plan, because the actual sur- 
 veying of the farms cannot take place until 
 the tract of land is actually bought, and 
 the character of its different portions is 
 carefully examined." 
 
 Here I laid upon the table the following 
 sketch, and I added a few words of explana- 
 tion. 
 
 " You see that farms 1, 2, and 3 are for 
 poultry, and the others are as stated. At the 
 left there is a lane indicated ; there would be 
 need of several of those, at various points 
 around the circle ; they would make trans- 
 portation easier, and would give easier com- 
 munication with the village ; they could be 
 kept in repair jointly, by adjacent farmers. 
 This sketch indicates only a small part of the 
 
CIRCLE CITY ON PAPER. 
 
 79 
 
 whole tract of four square miles, and is en- 
 tirely provisional ; the actual allotment of 
 farms might vary considerably from this ; 
 
 still, in a general way, the farms would re- 
 semble these." 
 
 " You mentioned the sum of $150,000, in 
 round numbers, as the cost of all this," said 
 
80 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 Colonel Royce, thoughtfully. " Now, how do 
 you apportion the expenditures to the various 
 parts ?" 
 
 In reply, I referred to my memorandum- 
 book, where I had set down a few figures. 
 " I talked over the several classes of expendi- 
 tures," said I, " with Mr. Gray, and with a 
 friend of his, in the city engineer's office. 
 Mr. Gray and I agreed that the land would 
 not cost over $10,000, probably less. I have 
 seen real estate catalogues of several towns 
 north of us, and land is very cheap : every- 
 body is looking toward the cities; many 
 farms are deserted, because of their lonely 
 situation, each of which, if worked properly, 
 would afford a family a good living. Then, 
 regarding the houses, Mr. Gray and I agreed 
 that they must be small and plain. At first 
 he was inclined to talk about aesthetic effects, 
 which would increase the cost of building, but 
 when I reminded him of the wretched homes 
 from which our colonists would come, he con- 
 fessed that light and cleanliness were the 
 chief things to be desired. So he gave me 
 
CIKCLE CITY ON PAPER. 81 
 
 the amount, $800, or less, as the probable 
 sum at which each of the hundred houses 
 could be built." 
 
 " That is a total, for building," said Colonel 
 Royce, " of $80,000. But these houses must 
 be drained." 
 
 " Certainly ! And the assistant engineer 
 figured out the cost of that as amounting to 
 about $9,000. That would put a sewer 
 around the circle, and then carry the sewage 
 away (if the soil was fairly favourable for 
 digging), to a distance of a mile and a 
 half. 
 
 " Then there is the water-supply," I con- 
 tinued. " The four square miles of terri- 
 tory must touch the shores of some good 
 lake, and then, according to the assistant's 
 figures, $9,000 would construct and start 
 a good water-supply, with faucets in every 
 house." 
 
 " That all sounds very reasonable," re- 
 marked Colonel Royce, as I paused. " Have 
 you those amounts added up?" and I set 
 them down as follows: 
 
82 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 EXPENDITURES FOR BUILDING CIRCLE CITY. 
 
 Cost of land ... 
 
 810,000 
 
 Cost of 100 houses, at $800 
 
 80,000 
 
 Cost of water-supply 
 
 9,000 
 
 Cost of drainage 
 
 9,000 
 
 Total $108,000 
 
 " There," I remarked, " that amounts to 
 only $108,000, but I always have a dread of 
 the unexpected but overwhelming column of 
 ' incidental expenses/ and I have allowed 
 broadly for that. Moreover, I have not over- 
 looked the fact that these inexperienced 
 farmers of ours will do very poor work the 
 first season, and they must be helped out ; 
 money will be needed for that. Then, too, 
 several overseers, or superintendents, experi- 
 enced farmers, will need to be hired for a 
 year or two, at least. Also," I added, " we 
 must supply these penniless colonist farmers 
 with tools and machines. I believe that very 
 economical use of time and labour can be 
 made by the use of machinery. On the old- 
 fashioned extensive farms, mowing-machines 
 and seed-planters could not be savingly used, 
 
CIRCLE CITY ON PAPEE. 83 
 
 but in a closely grouped community like 
 Circle City, one mowing-machine can be kept 
 steadily in use for the entire mowing season, 
 and will cut the grass of twenty farms. 
 Likewise a seed-planter can be transferred 
 promptly from farm to farm, and will out- 
 work twenty men. So with many other ma- 
 chines and tools, to be owned, perhaps, by the 
 syndicate, and rented on easy terms. The 
 cost of such tools and machinery will be as 
 much as ten thousand dollars. That sum can 
 be advanced by the syndicate, and the money 
 will be gradually paid back in rentals of the 
 machinery." 
 
 I was looking at Colonel Eoyce as I talked, 
 anticipating his approval, which he presently 
 gave. As for Doctor Barton, I knew that he 
 was enthusiastic about the plan, and so much 
 so that I feared he might not look upon it 
 with sufficiently critical eyes. " One hundred 
 and fifty thousand dollars is a large sum," 
 remarked Colonel Royce, in a meditative way. 
 " And yet I have observed, that, strange as it 
 may seem, a large sum is often quite as easy 
 
84 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 to raise as a small one. I have often been 
 amused to see people screw up their faces and 
 grasp at their pocketbooks, when asked for 
 five dollars, yet at another time they would 
 put down their names for five hundred dollars, 
 with no greater contortions, or protestations 
 of poverty." 
 
 " Yes," added Margaret, my industrious 
 wife, who was sewing at a side table, but was 
 closely following the conversation, "yes, I 
 have noticed that very thing when I have 
 gone out soliciting for our Benevolent Associ- 
 ation. I get one or two large givers to put 
 their names down first, and that sets the key, 
 and if people give at all, they give according 
 to that standard." 
 
 Colonel Royce strode up and down the 
 little room several times, with his hands 
 thrust deeply into his pockets. The rest of 
 us knew perfectly well what he was thinking 
 about. " Remember my offer ! " said Doctor 
 Barton, laughing. " Put me in the list, but 
 not near the top ! Mrs. Wentworth is correct 
 in her diagnosis of human nature." And 
 
CIKCLE CITY ON PAPER. 85 
 
 then he added, more seriously, " It would be 
 worth my ten thousand dollars to me, to have 
 some outlet for the appeals of misery and 
 degradation which rise up around me nearly 
 every day, as I go my round of professional 
 calls. I give and give, I refer to this bureau 
 of relief and to that one, and, all the time, 
 the help is only temporary, and does not 
 reach the seat of the disease." 
 
 That suggested an idea to Colonel Koyce, 
 and he asked, " You are not so sanguine as 
 to expect all the colonist farmers, who start 
 in this scheme, to do efficient work?" 
 
 " By no means ! " exclaimed Doctor Barton, 
 taking up the challenge. " Perhaps ten 
 per cent, of them will prove indolent or in- 
 competent ; and if so, after a fair trial, they 
 must be weeded out, and more earnest people 
 substituted for them. It does not require any 
 higher grade of intelligence or education than 
 most of these starving, despairing people pos- 
 sess ; the great defect of the farmer class, in 
 New England and the Middle States, is lazi- 
 ness. I have a cousin, a storekeeper in a 
 
86 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 little rural town not far from here, and he 
 has told me that the failure of most farms 
 is because of the shiftless indolence of their 
 owners." 
 
 " And, partly, too, from the lack of stimu- 
 lus," I added. " Sometimes a } T oung man is 
 lazy and torpid in the country, and when 
 he migrates to some city, the whirl and rush 
 of human activity, all about him, stimulates 
 and rouses him to unprecedented exertion. 
 And that is one of the important points in 
 the construction of our little colony. It will 
 be large enough, and compact enough, to de- 
 velop that stimulating atmosphere which is 
 needful for the full exertion of many kinds 
 of natures." 
 
 At that moment, the door-bell sounded, 
 and, in a moment, a summons came for 
 Doctor Barton. A child, on the west side 
 of the city, was in need of immediate atten- 
 tion. The doctor's housemaid brought the 
 message, and Doctor Barton arose at once, 
 said good night, and promptly took his depar- 
 ture. 
 
CIRCLE CITY ON PAPER. 87 
 
 After lie was gone, we noted where his 
 power lay. Colonel Royce saw it, for he said, 
 with a smile, "Doctor Barton's departure 
 lowers the temperature. What a warm, 
 stimulating, optimistic nature he has ! What 
 a helping influence he must be, in a sick- 
 room ! " 
 
 Then the rather taciturn man looked at his 
 watch, and said, " I must be off. It is grow- 
 ing late. I have thought this matter over 
 a great deal, and now, if you will draw off 
 for me, on a small sheet of paper, duplicates 
 of these plans and estimates, I will see what 
 I can do with them on the street." 
 
 Said my wife, after the outer door closed 
 behind him, " That means that the $150,000 
 is sure to come." 
 
 " Yes, I think it does. Colonel Royce has 
 a great deal of money, himself, and his friends 
 will follow him in any enterprise which he 
 urges. I believe I would be safe in beginning 
 some inquiries about possible tracts of land." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CIRCLE CITY IN REALITY. 
 
 THE next day, I sent Colonel Royce copies 
 of the plans of our colony, as far as we 
 had worked them out, together with our ap- 
 proximate estimates. I knew his ways, and 
 habits of thought, and I was sure that he 
 would reflect carefully, and at some length, 
 upon the matter, before approaching any of 
 his friends with appeals for their money and 
 support. 
 
 During the week or ten days following, I 
 was crowded with work in my parish, and 
 no opportunity offered for a journey into the 
 country districts, in search of a suitable site 
 for our colony. But I wrote several letters 
 to persons of my acquaintance, in several 
 towns, and Doctor Barton also followed out 
 a few lines of inquiry, on his own account. 
 
CIRCLE CITY IN REALITY. 89 
 
 He came in, one evening, for a few minutes, 
 to tell me how he was progressing, and in- 
 cidentally mentioned a recent book, written 
 by the Russian Kropotkin, in which he had 
 become much interested. "I don't follow 
 Kropotkin in all his theories," said the doctor, 
 shaking his head, " but I was struck by his 
 advocacy of the very remedy for city destitu- 
 tion which we are working out. He says 
 that the untilled, undeveloped country dis- 
 tricts offer the natural outlet for the crowded 
 cities. And then he makes some capital 
 suggestions, which we will do well to bear 
 in mind. I will get the book for you, and 
 you must read it. He suggests that there are 
 many minor industries, small manufactures, 
 which can be carried on in the country, quite 
 as well as in the city." 
 
 I was interested in the doctor's words, for, 
 as I at once told him, I had recently received 
 a letter, in response to one of my own, from 
 
 Mr. X , a specialist in charity problems 
 
 and a resident of a college settlement in one 
 of our largest cities, and Mr. X had 
 
90 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 urged this same project of small industries 
 as a part of our scheme. " It is well worth 
 considering," said I, " and it adds just this 
 one more needed condition, in our search for 
 a good site : we must find a tract of land 
 with water-power on it." 
 
 So this feature was noted by both of us, 
 and was specified in the letters and inquiries 
 which we wrote and made, among our friends 
 in the country districts. 
 
 Finally a day came when the doctor and 
 I were both at leisure to make a journey of 
 inspection in the country. Out of the bundle 
 of letters which we had received, we had 
 selected three or four as possible purchases. 
 The conditions and requirements, which we 
 had laid down in our own minds, were mainly 
 these : 
 
 First, the tract of land must be not over 
 twenty miles from the city. 
 
 Second, it must be at least good average 
 land, from an agricultural point of view. 
 
 Third, it might have some hills, but the 
 general slope must be toward the south. 
 
CIRCLE CITY IN REALITY. 91 
 
 Fourth, it must have a good, clear lake 
 within reach, for water-supply, and a river 
 or bay not too remote for sewage outlet. 
 
 Fifth, we were not very decided as to price, 
 but were agreed that no forced price should 
 be paid ; but we expected to follow the market 
 price of the locality chosen, and hoped to come 
 within the figure of ten thousand dollars. 
 
 I will not take the time and space, here, 
 to narrate the incidents of our three jour- 
 neys. For not until a third journey was 
 undertaken did we find a tract of country 
 which suited us. One other tract we dis- 
 covered, the first day, but concluded to go 
 through our list, and then select the best. 
 We found the journeys not unenjoyable, and 
 Doctor Barton's zeal was unbounded. The 
 best site, out of the six we investigated, was 
 one suggested by Doctor Barton's store-keep- 
 ing cousin. This man proved to be of great 
 assistance to us. He was shrewd and thrifty, 
 and had reflected wisely on the conditions 
 of country life. He was an ardent admirer 
 of the doctor, and told me privately that 
 
92 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 he owed the life of one of his boys to Doctor 
 Barton's skill and faithfulness. 
 
 Although Doctor Barton believed him to 
 be a trustworthy man, I thought it best that 
 we should not let him into the secret of our 
 interest in buying land. I feared that, if our 
 project became known, the price of the land 
 would at once rise. Moreover, we were by 
 no means sure that the project would be 
 carried out. So we went with Mr. Gleason, 
 the storekeeper, over the entire tract which 
 he had suggested, and were much pleased 
 with it. It was made up of several farms, 
 only two or three being under cultivation. 
 The others were owned by men who had 
 long since gone away to the large towns and 
 cities, and left the houses and buildings to fall 
 into ruin. The two farms which were being 
 worked were typical of the shiftless, unprofit- 
 able methods so prevalent in the Eastern and 
 Middle States. They contained two or three 
 hundred acres, and were only half developed, 
 or, rather, judged by the highest standards, 
 not one-tenth cultivated. 
 
CIRCLE CITY Itf REALITY. 93 
 
 " How different from the tiny farms which 
 I have seen in Belgium and France ! " 
 remarked Doctor Barton, reflectively. " How 
 unscientific ! How unremunerative ! " 
 
 And I recalled small, compact, well- 
 nourished market-gardens which I had seen, 
 in our own country ; and the difference 
 between those and these was very marked. 
 
 Taking the land as a whole, we were much 
 pleased with it. The soil varied, in various 
 parts of the tract ; there was some soil that 
 was light, and other parts that were heavier. 
 A few hundred acres were covered with 
 timber, and there were several small spaces 
 which seemed rather rocky and barren ; but, 
 taking the tract as a whole, with the several 
 streams running through it, and the clear 
 spring-fed lake a mile and a half away at 
 the north, and the good drainage outlet in 
 Weir River, at the south, well, we were 
 greatly pleased at the possibilities it offered 
 for our plan of colonisation. However, we 
 said very little in Mr. Gleason's presence, 
 and I think that, for some time, he fancied 
 
94 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 we wished to acquire the land for some sort 
 of a country residence or club resort, with 
 preserves for game and fish. 
 
 We made inquiries of Mr. Gleason, regard- 
 ing the probable cost of the land, farms and 
 all, and he named a probable figure which 
 fell within our own estimate. Moreover, he 
 said that there would be very little difficulty 
 about buying, especially if cash were offered. 
 
 So Doctor Barton and I made our way 
 back to the railway station, about three 
 miles distant, and reached home late in the 
 day, but much pleased with our journey and 
 its possible results. 
 
 The next step was to take Colonel Koyce 
 out to the proposed site, and let him see, with 
 his own eyes, what the land looked like. 
 But we were afraid lest a second visit, so 
 soon after the first one, might arouse too 
 much curiosity on the part of the people in 
 that region, and might affect the prices of 
 the farms. Accordingly Doctor Barton, who 
 was always full of resources, suggested that 
 the trip be made as a fishing and hunting 
 
CIRCLE CITY IN REALITY. 95 
 
 excursion ; and this suggestion, after con- 
 siderable amusement on everybody's part, 
 was carried out. I found myself unable to 
 go, on the day appointed, because of a 
 funeral service which I was unexpectedly 
 called to attend ; but Doctor Barton and 
 Colonel Royce, and a friend of the colonel's 
 (one of several to whom the colonel had 
 talked concerning our proposed plan), these 
 three actually made their tour of inspection, 
 dressed as if for a day's fishing or shooting, 
 reaching the place by a different railway, and 
 a six-mile drive across country. 
 
 The trip was most successful. Not even 
 Mr. Gleason had any knowledge of their visit. 
 They tramped over the land, chatted with 
 the rather shiftless families on the occupied 
 farms, waded the brooks, and visited the lake 
 on the northern edge of the tract. When 
 they returned they were much exhausted by 
 their tramping, and I saw only Doctor 
 Barton ; but he told me that Colonel Royce 
 and his friend, a wealthy retired merchant, 
 were greatly interested in the plan. 
 
96 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 I heard nothing from Colonel Royce, for 
 several days. Then I received a message 
 asking me to be in his office on a certain 
 date and hour. 
 
 At the hour appointed I was there, and 
 found the luxuriously furnished room occu- 
 pied by Doctor Barton, Colonel Royce, and 
 several other men, one or two of whom I 
 already knew as men of wealth and of 
 philanthropic spirit. My friend Gray, the 
 architect, also had been summoned, and sat 
 reading a magazine in the corner of the 
 room. After a few introductions, and some 
 general remarks on the weather and business, 
 Colonel Royce broached the subject which 
 had brought us together. " I have already 
 explained to you gentlemen, separately," said 
 he, in his slow, deliberate way, "the plan 
 which we are working out. I do not wish 
 to paint it in rose colours ; there are diffi- 
 culties about it, and I face them candidly; 
 but I believe in the plan strongly enough 
 to put some money into it. In fact, Mr. 
 Wentworth," said he, turning toward me, 
 
CIRCLE CITY m REALITY. 97 
 
 "I may as well tell you, at once, that 
 several of us, including Doctor Barton, have 
 put our hearts and our pocketbooks together, 
 and we see our way clear to purchase the 
 tract of land ; we have, in fact, secured all 
 the farms comprised in it. One man, who 
 had not seen his property for ten years, 
 was at first inclined to hold back, saying 
 that he could not quite bring himself to 
 sell his old home, — it was evidently very 
 dear to him ; but we partly explained to 
 him our disinterested plan, and he turned 
 straight around and made us a gift of the 
 place. He said he would make an offering 
 of it to the Lord, through our instrumen- 
 tality. Then there was another owner, one 
 of the men still living on the farm, who 
 tried to get an exorbitant price ; but he 
 was told flatly that we could probably find 
 land elsewhere, and we would buy at our 
 price — a good fair one — or let him keep 
 it; and that brought him to terms. Our 
 friend Gleason managed that purchase for 
 us, and managed it well, I'm free to say. 
 
98 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 The total cost of the land will be about 
 eighty-eight hundred dollars, I believe. We 
 have deemed it advisable to group ourselves 
 together, into a kind of syndicate, and these 
 papers on the desk have been drawn up, 
 and signed by all except yourself. We do 
 not expect you, Mr. Wentworth, to give 
 money, because you, like most clergymen, 
 have no great abundance of worldly goods ; 
 but we need your help in many ways, and 
 your position in the syndicate is clearly 
 stated in the papers, which I will thank 
 you to sign." 
 
 As I glanced through the papers, one of 
 the men, a retired banker, said : " This is 
 a novel kind of scheme, and I don't know 
 how it will turn out ; but I feel inclined to 
 see it through, and enjoy the use of my 
 money, instead of leaving all of it for my 
 heirs to dispose of. Isn't that a good idea, 
 Mr. Clancy?" and he turned toward the man 
 next him, as he spoke. 
 
 Mr. Clancy nodded and smiled, and added, 
 jocosely, " I expect to make money out of it. 
 
CIRCLE CITY IN REALITY. 99 
 
 The rate of interest is falling, and invest- 
 ments are more and more risky. I expect, 
 at least, five per cent, dividends on my 
 share." 
 
 They all laughed, and there seemed to be 
 a very easy feeling among them. I knew 
 that two or three of them were rated as 
 millionaires, and I was pleased to see how 
 ready they were to do good with their 
 wealth. 
 
 Colonel Royce now took the lead, and 
 said : " We need to set about our building 
 at once. October is nearly gone, and, with 
 a little energy, we can have our dwelling- 
 houses all up and boarded in, before snow 
 comes. Mr. Gray and a builder, whom I 
 have consulted, agree that a large force of 
 men, if set at work next week, can accom- 
 plish this. We have practically agreed on 
 the size and plans of the buildings. They 
 are to be substantially alike, with a few 
 variations in the way of porches and piazzas 
 and bay windows. Here are the plans of the 
 kind of house which we intend to put up." 
 
100 
 
 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 1 FIRST FLOOR PLAN 
 
CIKCLE CITY IN REALITY. 101 
 
 STORE 
 CLOSLT 
 
 6ED ROOM 
 II ft. x 13 ft 
 
 I i 
 
 5EC0ND FLOOR PLAN 
 
102 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 And he laid on the table two drawings, pre- 
 pared by my friend Gray. 
 
 " Five rooms in each. That is enough," he 
 continued ; " a kitchen and living-room on 
 the lower floor, and three bedrooms on the 
 second. That is not quite the way in which 
 you and I live, Mr. Harrison," he added, 
 drily, addressing a portly gentleman near 
 him. " But a family of four or six in a house 
 like that is better than two families of six 
 each in one room." 
 
 " They'll think they are in heaven ; " re- 
 marked Mr. Clancy, sententiously. 
 
 Thus the various steps were taken up, 
 one after another. I saw that, although this 
 was the first meeting, officially, of the Circle 
 City Syndicate (for thus Colonel Royce had 
 named it in the articles of partnership), there 
 had been considerable individual activity. 
 Colonel Royce's influence had been powerful, 
 and his leadership was almost magnetic. Mr. 
 Gray had named the sum of eight hundred 
 dollars as the probable cost of each house, 
 and Doctor Barton, with two or three sur- 
 
CIRCLE CITY IX REALITY. 103 
 
 veyors, had already been out and plotted the 
 circle which was to be the centre of the 
 colony. 
 
 The work of engaging day-labourers for 
 digging the cellars, carpenters for the houses, 
 wagons for transportation, and many other 
 matters, was divided into committees, and 
 discussed informally. Then, after some talk 
 among the members of these several commit- 
 tees, the meeting adjourned. 
 
 I confess that I went homeward in much 
 elation of heart. I told Margaret all about 
 the meeting, and promised to drive her out, in 
 a few days, to see the progress of the work. 
 I knew that those men would push it along 
 at an unprecedented rate of speed ; nearly 
 every one of them was an active, able man, 
 and commanded great resources, and I had 
 observed that they were much interested in 
 the rather novel scheme. " What you and I 
 must do, Margaret," I said to my wife, " is to 
 put ourselves as closely as possible in touch 
 with the charity bureaus, and workingmen's 
 unions, and similar organisations, and we must 
 
104 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 have ready, in the early spring, a hundred of 
 just the right families to go out and take 
 possession of this promised land." And I 
 kissed my wife on both cheeks, from sheer joy 
 at the hopeful outlook of events. 
 
 Well, we took the drive on the Wednesday 
 following, and, much as I expected to see 
 activity and intelligence displayed by these 
 clear-headed, strong-willed business men, I 
 underestimated them. Doctor Barton and 
 the surveyors had chosen the location of the 
 circle wisely, taking into account the soil, 
 slope of the land, water-courses, and other 
 important matters. I could not conceal my 
 delight, as we drove over a low ridge of land, 
 and looked across at the future colony. Hun- 
 dreds of men were at work. It was a scene 
 of the most intense activity, but the work 
 had been planned very carefully, so that the 
 different parts did not interfere with one 
 another. 
 
 As I drove up the slightly rising ground, 
 and reached the scene, it reminded me of the 
 preparations for one of the great college foot- 
 
CIECLE CITY. IN EEALITT. 105 
 
 ball games, except that it was on an area 
 about four times as great. I recognised Mr. 
 Clancy, who was not far away, talking with 
 two or three contractors. From him I learned 
 that the S. & B. Trolley Railroad had voted, 
 the day before, to lay a track from the city 
 out to the colony, and take half the risk, the 
 syndicate to be responsible for the other half. 
 " They will begin work to-morrow," said Mr. 
 Clancy, " and, if the heavy frost holds off, 
 will have the harder part of their work done 
 by the first of December." 
 
 Then he and I talked about the railroad, 
 and the use of electricity in the small manu- 
 factures which we planned for a part of the 
 colonists. " We have two or three excellent 
 falls in the streams not far from here," said 
 he, "and we can use them to get electrical 
 power, and then transmit that power very 
 easily to any house or shop in the colony. I 
 have glanced over the tract of land, and 
 judge that it covers something less than four 
 square miles ; most of it is at least fairly 
 good for some kind of farming, and some of 
 
106 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 it is excellent. But a portion of it is too 
 rocky for much value, and we must assign 
 our people to the farms in such a way that 
 the manufacturing interests shall supplement 
 the farming interests." 
 
 " The more I look into these matters of 
 suburban colonisation," said I, " and view 
 them in the light of modern inventions, the 
 more I see how science is a powerful ally in 
 developing the resources of country life. We 
 must make use of every possible invention." 
 
 " That is certainly true," responded Mr. 
 Clancy. " We are having this fact forced 
 upon us here daily. I am in correspondence 
 with an electric-light man, who came out 
 here a week ago, and he tells me that, with 
 our water-power from the falls, we can very 
 properly and reasonably light our entire circle 
 of homes with electricity. The houses are 
 so closely grouped that the cost of wiring 
 would be not great, and, as you know, the 
 amount of electricity used can be measured, 
 and we intend to do away with the usual 
 nauseating tenement-house odour of kerosene 
 
CIRCLE CITY IN REALITY. 107 
 
 altogether. Besides, as Colonel Royce sug- 
 gested, wiring is now carefully done, and the 
 danger of conflagrations will be materially 
 reduced." 
 
 Margaret and I drove and walked about, for 
 an hour or two, and noted the rapid progress 
 which was making. And when I remarked 
 to her that it was a great and grand enter- 
 prise, she replied, cautiously, that she was 
 glad I had not the whole responsibility. To 
 which I rejoined that lack of money was the 
 only barrier which prevented me from putting 
 my whole strength and time into it. 
 
 " However," said I, as we turned our horse's 
 head homeward, and left the clatter of ham- 
 mers and saws behind, " we have responsibili- 
 ties quite as great. We have, for our part, 
 to deal, not with wood and stone and earth, 
 but with human nature ; and I doubt if we 
 shall find it the easiest kind of material to 
 fashion. We shall need all our wisdom and 
 patience to have ready our hundred worthy 
 families for their springtime migration." 
 
 Margaret was humming a little refrain 
 
108 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 from " Faust," and did not reply for several 
 moments ; then she remarked, " I think the 
 colony idea is a good one ; at least, the end 
 which it seeks to accomplish is excellent, but 
 I am a little uneasy when I reflect upon the 
 gigantic scale on which it is planned. I wish 
 it could be tried, at first, on a small scale, 
 at much less expense ; and then — but there, 
 I know, of course, that it cannot. The most 
 essential element of the plan is that it 
 plants a large number of families upon the 
 soil together, and thereby meets the love of 
 companionship and society which all people 
 feel." 
 
 " Exactly so," I added ; " and while we 
 may wish, most earnestly, that the desire for 
 human companionship and social stimulus 
 were eliminated from human hearts (at least 
 from the hearts of certain needy, distressed 
 classes), yet we must face the fact of its 
 powerful presence in all hearts, and then try 
 to deal with it wisely. It sometimes comes 
 to me, as an excellent illustration of that 
 text, taken from the story of Christ's tempta- 
 
CIRCLE CITY IN REALITY. 109 
 
 tion, ' Man shall not live by bread alone.' 
 For, as both you and I have observed, people 
 will deliberately give up food and clothing, 
 and all the natural comforts of existence, 
 sooner than give up the companionship and 
 excitement of busy, stirring human life." 
 
 " Yes, and there is something inspiring in 
 that fact, adversely as it works when we try 
 to carry out our plan. It is a declaration of 
 the spiritual and immortal nature of man, 
 and goes far to offset some of the more mate- 
 rial and animal instincts, which often seem so 
 suggestive of a base source and destiny for 
 human nature." 
 
 We reached home in due time, and tried to 
 put out of our minds all ideas about Circle 
 City, as we took up again the regular duties 
 of parish life. But the novelty of the plan, 
 and the hearty, hopeful way in which our 
 generous friends of the syndicate were taking 
 hold of it, these matters brought the subject 
 constantly into the foreground of our thought ; 
 and we exchanged remarks, again and again, 
 on the problems of crops, sewage, electric 
 
110 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 power, and the like, when we ought to have 
 been absorbed in Sunday-school and sewing 
 society matters. 
 
 We heard, through Doctor Barton, two or 
 three times a week, how the work was going 
 forward. He was considerably pleased over 
 a plan of his own for heating all the houses 
 of the colony with steam by pipes running 
 from a boiler-house placed just outside the 
 circle. " I have seen enough of these cold 
 farmhouses, in my time," said he, " to know 
 that, however highly our fathers praised them 
 as encouraging hardihood and physical endur- 
 ance, they really killed off, with consump- 
 tion and pneumonia, more lives than they 
 saved or hardened. And we are going to run 
 a main supply steam-pipe around the circle, 
 and tap it at each house, and put radiators in 
 at least one or two, or all the rooms. I had 
 to put heat into my cook's room, at home, 
 last winter, or she would not stay. I don't 
 blame her very much, either ; and we can 
 make these people more comfortable than the 
 old-time farmers ever were, and save some- 
 
CIRCLE CITY IN REALITY. Ill 
 
 thing on hot-air stoves, — inventions of the 
 evil one ! " 
 
 I had never seen the doctor so happy and 
 enthusiastic before. He was committed to 
 the plan, not only in pocket, but in head and 
 heart. He smoked twice his usual amount, 
 whenever he came in to see us, and refused 
 to talk of anything except subjects connected 
 with the colonisation plan. My wife chaffed 
 him a little at times, even suggesting that he 
 would probably take up his abode in Circle 
 City as soon as it was ready. 
 
 "I might do worse," affirmed the doctor; 
 not relinquishing his position. " Those 
 houses are not large, but they are snug and 
 comfortable. I could live in one perfectly 
 well. After all, we are, most of us, slaves to 
 our possessions and victims of our artificial 
 kind of life." 
 
 " How nearly complete are the houses ? " I 
 asked, one evening in November. 
 
 " Oh, they are moving along in a very 
 satisfactory manner," said he, rubbing his 
 hands together, with pardonable satisfaction. 
 
112 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 " Have you heard about Mr. Clancy's latest 
 plan for improvements ? " 
 
 I had not. And the doctor explained. 
 " Mr. Clancy is a very resourceful man, with 
 great initiative and plenty of boldness in 
 execution. He is just now arranging to do 
 away with the usual coal cooking-stoves, in 
 all the kitchens. He has calculated cost, and 
 finds that he can build a small gasometer on 
 the outskirts of the colony, and put gas-fed 
 cooking-stoves into all the kitchens. One 
 small steam-radiator in each kitchen will 
 furnish heat enough for personal comfort. 
 This plan will not include hot-water tanks, 
 such as you and I have in our houses, for 
 those involve considerable expense ; but with- 
 out them the scheme is economical, and, 
 besides, there is much greater cleanliness, 
 with gas, than with coal and ashes." 
 
 " Just how far along are the houses, them- 
 selves ? " I asked, after expressing my approval 
 of the cook-stoves. 
 
 " They are nearly all l covered in,' as the 
 builders say, and Colonel Royce has decided 
 
CIRCLE CITY IX REALITY. 113 
 
 to discharge fifty or a hundred of the men. 
 He engaged them for only a month, intend- 
 ing, after the houses were up and protected 
 from the weather, to retain a part of the 
 working force, and proceed more leisurely 
 through the winter. What a capital execu- 
 tive mind that man has ! And Mr. Clancy, 
 too ! No wonder he made millions in his real 
 estate transactions ! He has the elements of 
 a great general in him. You ought to see 
 him direct and manipulate his cohorts of 
 carpenters and day-labourers ! He does it in 
 a marvellous way." 
 
 "I hope," said my wife, apprehensively, 
 "that he won't expose himself, and injure 
 his health. He is not a young man, and 
 needs to take care of himself. I can't help 
 wondering a little why he has gone into this 
 plan so earnestly. He has not been called a 
 particularly generous man." 
 
 " Quite the reverse ! " interrupted Doctor 
 Barton. "Colonel Royce and I were speak- 
 ing of that very point, a few days ago, and 
 the colonel had framed this solution of the 
 
114 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 matter. He believes that Mr. Clancy is 
 naturally a generous, kind-hearted man, but 
 he has been so attacked and condemned, 
 because of his success in building up his 
 department stores, that he has become embit- 
 tered, and has retorted, many times, by word 
 and deed, in such ways that people have set 
 him down as a hard, selfish man. And he, 
 finding that such was his reputation, has 
 unconsciously lived up to it. Now that he 
 has retired, and Colonel Royce approached 
 him in the right way, he has thrown all his 
 rare powers into this plan, and finds joy in 
 the thought of the good it will accomplish." 
 
 Thus the weeks wore away, and winter 
 came on. There was little to be seen of 
 autumn foliage, in the narrow city life which 
 I led. But winter was indicated by the 
 increasing coldness of the air, and by my 
 enlarging list of applicants for help. I found 
 myself, in nearly every appeal that came to 
 me, silently passing judgment on the appli- 
 cant, as to whether or not he or she would 
 be a proper and useful member of Circle 
 
CIRCLE CITY IN REALITY. 115 
 
 City. However, I did not take any active 
 steps toward gathering my company of 
 colonists together, until after New Year's. 
 To tell the truth about it, I had some fears 
 about my success in this part of the plan, and 
 my fears were well founded. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 FEOM HEDGES AND BY - WATS. 
 
 AT Christmas time our church gave its 
 usual festival for the poor in one of 
 the lower wards of the city; and at that 
 time I took occasion to make a list of 
 twenty or thirty families who seemed to be 
 of the sort best suited to our plan. After 
 the new year had come in, and the extra 
 work of the holidays — so heavy for most 
 clergymen — had been accomplished, I de- 
 cided to call together these families, or 
 representative members of them, and explain 
 to them our plan of colonisation. 
 
 The families were classed among the 
 " worthy poor," and were of all races and 
 religions. Some of them had at their head 
 a man, — a husband, or brother, or grown- 
 up son ; and in some a woman — a mother, 
 
 116 
 
FROM HEDGES AND BY-WAYS. 117 
 
 or grown-up sister or daughter — was the 
 leader. Doctor Barton and I had agreed 
 that not every family in our colony need 
 have a man at the head; for the carrying 
 on of some kinds of farm work, — as, for 
 instance, poultry, bees, flowers, and other 
 kinds, — a strong, industrious woman could 
 do quite as efficient work as could a man. 
 
 So the people came together, about thirty 
 men and eiorht or ten women. I called 
 them to meet in our church vestry, with- 
 out explaining the purpose of the meeting. 
 Evidently some of them had anticipations 
 of a free distribution of food, or clothing, 
 or something of that kind; for as I opened 
 up the plan of the colony, warmly as I pic- 
 tured the benefits of such a life, I became 
 aware that several faces were exhibiting 
 disappointment, and even contempt. I told 
 them about the joys of rural life, and 
 painted, as eloquently as I could, the happi- 
 ness of living in a little house of one's 
 own, with good air and wholesome country 
 fare. 
 
118 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 After I had explained the plan fully, 
 I waited and asked for questions, but none 
 were asked. Finally I dismissed the meet- 
 ing, for I saw that many were impatient 
 to be gone ; and I requested any who 
 wished to talk with me further upon the 
 subject to remain. 
 
 About fifteen remained, and of these only 
 ten were very promising material for the 
 life of such a colony as ours. The others 
 were too old or too infirm. Most of those 
 who had gone out were young people 
 between twenty-five and forty. Evidently 
 they did not find the struggle for life 
 quite severe enough in the great metropolis, 
 to make them eager to go forth into the 
 country. 
 
 I talked nearly an hour more, with those 
 who remained, and made a list of twelve 
 families who promised to give themselves 
 heartily to the life of the colony. 
 
 As I walked homeward I was somewhat 
 disappointed with the results of the meeting. 
 There was not that eagerness to receive my 
 
FROM HEDGES AND BY-WAYS. 119 
 
 good tidings for which I had really hoped, 
 even while I was telling myself that I 
 expected little. As I entered the front gate, 
 a rough-looking man was beating a slow 
 retreat from the kitchen door, and in the 
 doorway I saw the red face and angry eyes 
 of Bridget, our cook, as she poured out her 
 wrath upon the unkempt individual. Just 
 behind her florid countenance appeared my 
 wife, and I might have been alarmed had I 
 not seen a half-smile on my wife's face. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " I asked, as I 
 approached. 
 
 Bridget seemed a little confused at being 
 discovered by me ( " His Biverence," she 
 always called me ), and retreated to her pots 
 and pans. Margaret led the way into the 
 study, and then burst out laughing. 
 
 " It's no use ! " she exclaimed. " You and 
 I think we can read human character, and 
 can get into touch with all classes of people ; 
 but the fact is, we don't make half the 
 success of it we fancy we do." 
 
 She sat down in a chair and continued, 
 
120 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 " Now, I thought that man was a fairly prom- 
 ising specimen for aid, when he came to the 
 front door. He told a very smooth story, 
 and asked for work, as they always do, to 
 avoid arrest for vagrancy. I had no work 
 for him, as he probably took precious good 
 care to know, and I sent him around to the 
 kitchen door, intending to talk further with 
 him, and perhaps do something for him." 
 
 " You know the danger of dealing with 
 such characters," I said, " and you know, as 
 well as I do, how the army of tramps in this 
 country is increasing annually." 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes ! " retorted my wife, point- 
 ing her finger at me in amused scorn. "We 
 both know all that, but each new case seems 
 to me a possible exception ; and you know, 
 Walter, you are just as weak and yielding 
 as I am. So don't look so much like the 
 United States Supreme Court in full session ! 
 However, I sent the man to the side door, 
 and there he met Bridget." 
 
 "What then?" 
 
 " Well, the minute she fastened her eye 
 
FROM HEDGES AND BY-WAYS. 121 
 
 on him she looked straight through him, and 
 he knew it. I stood back in the dining-room, 
 with the door ajar, and heard the talk. She 
 opened fire on him at once. You know how 
 shrewd she is in many kinds of situations. 
 So the brogue was rich, as you can fancy. 
 She told him to go to work and earn his 
 food, as she had to. And she laid bare his 
 character in such a brief series of terse 
 statements, that the man wilted, and, for 
 several minutes, said not a word. The 
 change in him was almost as marked as in 
 the rapid transitions of the play of ( Doctor 
 Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ; ' and, what surprised 
 me even more, I confess, was, that when 
 he did mumble a few words of protest, he 
 spoke in an entirely different way from 
 what he had spoken to me." 
 
 My good wife and I laughed considerably 
 over this drama of the kitchen, and presently 
 turned away to our various duties ; but the 
 lesson to be learned from this incident did 
 not escape me, and it later served me to 
 very good purpose. I saw, though I hardly 
 
122 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 like to confess it (and few people of the 
 so-called " better classes " like to), that my 
 wife and I could not deal as effectively 
 with the members of the so-called " lower 
 classes," as could a person more nearly of 
 their level. I saw that Bridget could come 
 closer to that tramp, could understand him 
 better, and make him understand her better 
 than could I. She could penetrate his dis- 
 guises, both conscious and unconscious, as 
 Margaret and I could never do it. When 
 in our presence, he instinctively adapted 
 himself, shielded himself, and we could not 
 possibly see him as could another of his class. 
 It was only another confirming experience 
 out of the many I had passed through, but 
 it came just at a time when I was ready 
 to learn its lesson. I had been present at 
 interviews where a rich, educated woman 
 sat down in a tenement room, to draw out 
 and examine and pass judgment upon some 
 "case," some woman in squalor, with a brood 
 of dirty children standing around ; and, 
 always, the " case " sifted and read and 
 
FKOM HEDGES AND BY-WAYS. 123 
 
 judged the examiner, quite as skilfully as 
 she was herself sifted and judged. These 
 incidents I had seen, and had hoped that I 
 was myself more penetrating and more sym- 
 pathetic. I had nattered myself that I was, 
 but I began, now, to suspect myself. And 
 the experience which came to me a few 
 weeks later confirmed my suspicions. 
 
 It was when I went to one of the sweat- 
 shop addresses, given me by the secretary 
 of the Board of Health, and there, with 
 the permission of the proprietor, took ten 
 minutes, at noon, to explain our scheme 
 of Circle City. I had walked about through 
 the two large rooms, during a brief hour 
 previous, talking with several of the dirty, 
 despondent-looking workers, men and women. 
 They seemed to despair of everything. They 
 bent over their work — which was coat 
 making — with a sullen desperation, and 
 their thin, dirty fingers flew like the blood- 
 less levers of a machine. I went about and 
 asked questions, in a friendly manner, gain- 
 ing, in some degree, as I fancied, their 
 
124 BACK TO TIIE SOIL. 
 
 sympathy. But the moment I began to 
 address them in a body, and unfold my 
 plan of the colony, and picture the com- 
 forts and joys of country life, their faces 
 took on a suspicious expression, some of 
 them put their tongues in their cheeks, and 
 sundry knowing winks passed from eye to 
 eye. 
 
 I need not say that I was surprised, dis- 
 mayed. I found myself, my heart overflow- 
 ing with good-will to them, an object of 
 distrust. The truth was, and I saw it 
 quickly, they had been so long the victims 
 of oppression and evil designs, that they 
 had grown to disbelieve utterly in any fair 
 promises whatsoever. 
 
 I went through the form of inviting any 
 who wished to talk with me more fully, or 
 any who were already desirous of becoming 
 members of such a colony, to meet me, at my 
 home, that evening. 
 
 My words were wasted. Not a person 
 appeared. My appeal was in vain. My 
 kindly offers of help were rejected. 
 
FROM HEDGES AtfD BY -WATS. 125 
 
 Much the same kind of experience I went 
 through, when I visited the X — Y Paper 
 Mills, and there repeated my explanation of 
 our scheme, and gave my invitation. A half- 
 dozen men stayed, after hours, to talk with 
 me. Out of that number only four actually 
 came into our ranks ; and afterward formed 
 a substantial part of our organisation. 
 
 I began to grow discouraged. I had antici- 
 pated difficulties (or, at least, had said to 
 others, and to myself, that I did), but the 
 difficulties began to seem insuperable. 
 
 Then came to my mind the full meaning 
 of my lesson at Bridget's hands ; I had talked 
 freely with Margaret and Doctor Barton, 
 about my difficulties, and one evening, as I 
 happened to recollect and narrate for the 
 doctor the incident at the kitchen door, the 
 idea seized me that Bridget might succeed in 
 doing what I could not. She might be able 
 to get hold of those people, as I could not 
 hope to do. 
 
 Thereupon we talked the idea over; and 
 the result was that Doctor Barton was to see 
 
126 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 Colonel Royce's coachman, who was Bridget's 
 admirer, if not lover, and Margaret and I 
 were to interest Bridget herself. We agreed 
 that in those two we had interpreters who 
 could bring our plan more clearly and poAver- 
 fully to the attention of the people we wished 
 to reach. 
 
 The suggestion was a good one. Patrick, 
 the coachman, and Bridget had both worked 
 in their respective places several 3'ears, and 
 had come to fully trust their employers. We 
 therefore set about explaining our entire 
 colonisation scheme to them. Colonel Royce 
 acted as instructor for Patrick, and Margaret 
 and I tutored Bridget. At first the dear soul 
 got the idea that we wished her to go out 
 into the colony, herself, and that brought 
 about considerable misunderstanding; but, as 
 soon as the matter was cleared up, she showed 
 great interest, and even grew enthusiastic, 
 and suggested two of her relatives as candi- 
 dates for the colony, and recalled three 
 more relatives, still in Ireland, also desirable 
 colonists. 
 
FROM IIEDGES AND BY-WAYS. 127 
 
 Colonel Royce never did things by halves, 
 and he suggested sending Patrick and Bridget 
 out for a day's visit to Circle City, to see for 
 themselves what our plan really was. 
 
 The heavy snows, at that particular time, 
 made the journey somewhat difficult, but the 
 growing interest between the two made 
 them not wholly averse to having the trip a 
 long one, and a fine happy pair they were, 
 as they started on their peculiar holiday. 
 They reached Circle City without accident, 
 and spent several hours there, strolling about, 
 using their time as they wished, eating their 
 lunch in one of the partly finished houses, 
 and talking with the workmen, as oppor- 
 tunity and inclination offered. 
 
 The purpose with which they were sent 
 out was accomplished. They saw, with 
 their own eyes, what was projected in the 
 way of a colony. Each looked at it from 
 his or her point of view. Patrick got an 
 idea of the "general lay of the land," the 
 grouping of the houses, and the economic 
 side of the plan ; and Bridget took note 
 
128 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 of the houses and their possibilities for 
 comfort. 
 
 So they came back much pleased with 
 their outing, and quite confident about the 
 future of the colony. Lucky it was, for the 
 success of our plan, that they did ; because I 
 may as well confess that I was about given 
 over to despair, regarding my own powers 
 as a propagandist. 
 
 Colonel Royce arranged to give Patrick all 
 the leave of absence he wished, and we got 
 in a spare cook, to relieve Bridget, so that 
 these two newly enlisted allies at once set 
 about gaining colonists in their own way. 
 Patrick's method was to frequent the trades 
 unions, and workingmen's clubs, and there 
 make friends with as many men as possible, 
 talking especially with such as seemed 
 despondent or discouraged. Our general 
 instruction to him was to accept any who 
 really desired to enter the colony, if they 
 seemed to be acting in good faith. We 
 imposed no conditions as to skill ; and, with 
 regard to health, we tried to discriminate 
 
FEOM HEDGES AND BY-WAYS. 129 
 
 against dangerous epidemic diseases, but did 
 not wish him to refuse a group or family, 
 even if it contained a small proportion of 
 helpless members ; for we counted on finding 
 new kinds of work for many persons who 
 now seemed incapable. 
 
 However, I quite agreed with Colonel 
 Royce's idea that at first the larger part of 
 the colonists would best be above thirty years 
 of age'; for we believed that people under that 
 age would probably be too restless, and too 
 confident of their own untested powers, or 
 else, if quiet and unambitious, they would 
 very likely be seriously lacking in capacity 
 and energy. 
 
 Bridget carried on her missionary work 
 through the missions and intelligence offices, 
 and even boldly invaded tenement-houses and 
 the sweat-shops. 
 
 Our method proved to be a sound one. 
 Patrick and Bridget could talk to the class of 
 people whom we aimed to reach, in a way 
 which no member of the syndicate, however 
 kind-hearted, however shrewd in business, 
 
130 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 could hope to rival. Colonel Royce, Doctor 
 Barton, Margaret, and I held ourselves ready 
 to confer with our zealous deputies whenever 
 they wished to bring some timid, doubting 
 individual to us for confirmation of their 
 arguments or promises. They were instructed 
 that each family was to be made up of not less 
 than three, and not more than ten persons. 
 
 The cost of transportation, and the living 
 expenses for one year, were to be borne by 
 the syndicate ; but the syndicate reserved to 
 itself the right to terminate its relations with 
 any family, at its own discretion, agreeing to 
 replace its members in their former condition 
 of life if dismissed from this. Moreover, the 
 amount of furniture and household goods 
 which each family might wish to bring was 
 limited to a few simple articles, for cleanli- 
 ness must be vigorously insisted upon from 
 the first. 
 
 There were many interesting and even 
 amusing incidents brought to our notice dur- 
 ing the next few months, but these I pass 
 over without delay. Suffice it to say that by 
 
FROM HEDGES AND BY - WATS. 131 
 
 the end of March, as the houses began to be 
 finished off, and work on the water system 
 and sewage system began, one hundred fami- 
 lies were ready. A hundred and five families 
 were enrolled, allowing for defections and 
 desertions at the last hour. 
 
 Besides this mere enrolment of these hun- 
 dred and more families, Patrick and Bridget 
 had made a careful canvass of the various 
 preferences of their colonists for the several 
 kinds of farm labour possible in our little 
 community. Each family, and each member 
 of the family, had been registered in a book, 
 and full descriptions of characters and capac- 
 ities had been noted, so that when, after 
 the eventful, exciting, fatiguing, but delight- 
 ful week of transportation was over, and our 
 families (now comprising ninety-five) were 
 actually settled in their new homes, we had 
 them placed with considerable accuracy in 
 reference to the kind of work for which they 
 were inclined, and the kind of farm adapted 
 to that work. 
 
 Of course there were many matters of de- 
 
132 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 tail which came up in the process of settling 
 our colonists which could not easily have 
 been foreseen, although there were a dozen 
 of us, aggregating considerable brain power, 
 with our minds considerably bent upon work- 
 ing out our problem in all its minutiae. For 
 example, we now saw that there would be 
 need of several intelligent, experienced men, 
 to act as teachers, or overseers ; men who 
 could live in the colony and direct the practi- 
 cal work. Accordingly, Doctor Barton ap- 
 plied to his cousin, Mr. Gleason, and, through 
 his inquiries and judgment, the men were 
 found. These men we first called " over- 
 seers," but later we preferred to call them 
 " directors." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AB UKBE CONDITA. 
 
 I CONFESS that the faces of the new 
 colonists were not all of them prepos- 
 sessing. Even Doctor Barton, who had sub- 
 jected them to physical examination, felt 
 grave doubt about several persons. Still, we 
 trusted a good deal to the shrewd sense of 
 Patrick and Bridget, and we knew that each 
 person on the list had been separately and 
 carefully considered. Doctor Barton guaran- 
 teed their freedom from contagious diseases, 
 and Patrick and Bridget were sponsors for 
 their mental equipment. We had several 
 who were partial invalids, but they could 
 render some service in the household or 
 neighbourhood, often as caretakers of chil- 
 dren, while more robust mothers and sisters 
 were doing more vigorous work. As to the 
 
 133 
 
134 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 mental standards, we told our agents, Patrick 
 and Bridget, that we wanted only good 
 common sense, and I shall not forget the 
 humourous twinkle in shrewd Patrick's eye 
 as he touched his hat, to soften his repartee 
 (as was his wont), and replied : " Sure, sir, 
 it's a high standard, that. Where will you 
 find rale sound common sinse, now ? Among 
 rich or poor ? " 
 
 " In all of us, a part of the time," replied 
 Colonel Royce, laughing, "and in none of 
 us all the time." 
 
 We did not draw so rigid a line, morally, 
 as might have been expected. Of course we 
 would not consider for a moment any of 
 the class of confirmed criminals ; but my 
 experience had shown me that many a man 
 or woman comes out of prison, after a first 
 term, who is desirous and eager to live an 
 upright life. So I was not displeased when 
 Patrick whispered to me that he knew 
 about three of the men, and knew that they 
 had served short terms in the penitentiary ; 
 but after careful inquiry he was convinced 
 
AB URBE CONDITA. 135 
 
 that they were capable of complete reform, 
 if given a chance. We afterward did have 
 some trouble about a number of petty thefts, 
 but the offender was not one of these three 
 men. 
 
 There were several nationalities repre- 
 sented in our colony. We had two or three 
 families of Americans, who had formerly 
 lived on farms, but had ventured to the 
 city, and could not keep their standing 
 there. These people were of considerable 
 assistance in the very serious work of train- 
 ing the inexperienced members of the colony. 
 There were a few English families also, 
 and a great many Irish families. Then 
 there was a sprinkling of Germans, Italians, 
 and Poles. Also two French families, who 
 afterward proved excellent examples of thrift, 
 and were hard workers. 
 
 It was a tremendous piece of work, the 
 transporting of the colonists to Circle City. 
 Only the trained executive power of Colonel 
 Royce could have done it. The journey was 
 made by train to the nearest point, common 
 
136 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 freight-cars being used for all, and Mr. Glea- 
 son levied demands on all the carts and 
 wagons of three towns to carry the colonists 
 and their meagre personal property across 
 to their new homes. There was a good deal 
 of confusion, and I several times wished 
 that we had made the transfer in two or 
 three divisions ; but calculations had been 
 carefully made, and numbers assigned to 
 each family, so that order soon evolved out 
 of the seemingly hopeless chaos. 
 
 We found Mr. Gleason, the country store- 
 keeper, a shrewd, active man, and he proved 
 of great assistance to us in several ways. 
 He was fast becoming as interested in the 
 new colony as were we of the syndicate ; 
 and he found time to drive over frequently 
 to see how affairs were going. He was the 
 originator of our plan for a department 
 store. He quickly saw that we needed only 
 one store, and that it ought to be much like 
 his own country store ; if we chose to call 
 it a " department store," he had no objection; 
 but the essential point was, he said, that 
 
AB URBE CONDITA. 137 
 
 it should have every kind of " goods and 
 notions " that might be needed in the 
 colony. 
 
 That had led to the erection of another 
 public building in the circular space at the 
 centre of our colony, and Mr. Gleason took 
 charge of the store, sending over two experi- 
 enced men and one woman ( husband and wife 
 and wife's brother), who were already well 
 settled in the new store. The building was 
 two stories and a half high, and the second 
 and third floors contained rooms for the 
 boarding and lodging of these three people 
 and the " directors." 
 
 It was fortunate for us that the spring 
 opened early, because we were thereby helped 
 greatly in our excavating for the water- 
 supply and the sewage system. Then, too, 
 the weather was favourable for work upon 
 our line of electric railway, which was making 
 rapid progress. Two members of our syndi- 
 cate were heavy stockholders in the railway 
 company, and, through their efforts, the com- 
 pany decided to lay a double track line 
 
138 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 out to our colony. Work had been begun 
 at both ends of the line, and at two inter- 
 mediate points, and only a few weeks would 
 be needed to have the road ready for opera- 
 tion. Colonel Royce had already given an 
 order to the Empire Car Company for two 
 freight-cars, designed in part by himself, 
 which would be run to and fro, between 
 our colony and the city, and carry the 
 colony's products to market. It was the 
 purpose of the syndicate to establish a store 
 or market in the city, and to sell there as 
 many as possible of the products of the 
 colony. Moreover, it was hoped that, with 
 a specific trade-mark, put upon all such 
 products, and with the maintenance of a 
 high standard of value, the best kind of 
 public patronage would be secured. 
 
 The assistance of Professor Waters, of the 
 State Agricultural College, was very impor- 
 tant to us in the assignment of the families 
 to their respective farms. Professor Waters 
 had previously given some little time to the 
 study of the ground, and, with our surveyors, 
 
AB URBE CONDITA. 139 
 
 had laid out the farms in what proved to 
 be a very wise way. Many of the families 
 had decided preferences as to what kind of 
 farming they would take up. Others had 
 no choice. Often Professor Waters was able 
 to correct the judgment and choice of the 
 families, by taking into account the sex and 
 age of the members of a family, pointing 
 out to them how one line of work would 
 be best for a family containing two or three 
 men, while a different kind would be better 
 for a family containing several young girls. 
 For example, in the raising of poultry or 
 eggs, women could work as efficiently as 
 could men ; whereas, in the heavier kinds 
 of farming, market-gardening, hay farming, 
 stock-raising, and the like, greater strength 
 would be demanded of the workers, and 
 would best suit families where there were 
 several males. 
 
 The financial part of the plan had been 
 put, largely, into Colonel Royce's hands ; 
 that is to say, the adoption of a wise system 
 of loans and expenditures. At the occasional 
 
140 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 sessions of the syndicate, this matter had 
 been more or less discussed, but, practically, 
 it was mainly left in Colonel Royce's hands. 
 His theory, as we talked it over, was that 
 the colony must commence as a strongly 
 marked system of paternalism, and must aim 
 at working, as rapidly as was safe, toward 
 individualism. He began by loaning houses, 
 tools, food, and even clothing to the families, 
 keeping a close account of every loan, how- 
 ever small. All that he asked of the colo- 
 nists was good faith and hard work and 
 average intelligence. From some kinds of 
 work, payments on these loans could begin 
 in a few months ; but, by the end of the 
 year, every family ought to be able to make 
 them, in larger or smaller sums. Whenever 
 families, or individuals, showed hopeless in- 
 competence or indolence, these were to be 
 sent back to their squalid city life ; but a full, 
 fair trial would be given everybody. When 
 a family had repaid all loans made it for 
 tools, groceries, stock, seed, and the like, it 
 could then begin paying rent for its home. 
 
AB URBE CONDITA. 141 
 
 The wish on the part of our syndicate was 
 that this should be done as rapidly as pos- 
 sible. Just here, we met a difficulty which 
 had caused considerable discussion among us. 
 On the one hand, it seemed desirable to 
 make these people, as soon as they proved 
 themselves worthy of it, as independent and 
 individual as possible. We were not believers 
 in Socialism, and we had seen the dangers of 
 excessive permanent paternalism. Yet, on 
 the other hand, we hardly cared to put the 
 fate of our colony into these people's hands, 
 entirely; we therefore decided to keep the 
 ultimate control of land and houses in the 
 hands of the syndicate, at least for several 
 years. In all possible ways the plan was to 
 push our people on to the same kind and 
 degree of independence, which would be exer- 
 cised by them if they rented a farm in any 
 town in the State. 
 
 Closely allied to this problem of final, com- 
 plete ownership, was the problem of citizen- 
 ship. We had given considerable time to this 
 subject, and had debated rather hotly the 
 
142 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 expediency of forming a separate township ; 
 but, on reflection, it was deemed best to avoid, 
 in every way, all appearances of peculiarity, 
 and all tendencies toward isolation ; and our 
 voters were instructed to consider themselves 
 residents of the town where their homes 
 placed them. This solution of the problem 
 was helped by the fact that a town line ran 
 through one side of our little community, 
 thus making two-thirds of our people resi- 
 dents of Somerset, and the other third of 
 Monterey. 
 
 Although we all regarded Socialism, or 
 Communism, as the greatest defect of coloni- 
 sation schemes in the past, and as the rock 
 on which many well-intentioned plans had 
 split, yet we found that simple economy de- 
 manded some kinds of united action, and 
 allowed some kinds of mutual interdepend- 
 ence. In our farm work, in the use of the 
 larger kinds of tools and machines, this was 
 wisely arranged by our farm directors, who 
 were themselves practical farmers. They 
 speedily learned how to combine labour in 
 
AB URBE CONDITA. 143 
 
 small groups, and showed the colonists how 
 to aid one another in certain kinds of work. 
 
 But in other ways, also, we found union of 
 effort possible. For example, there was our 
 hospital. It was simply a group of six 
 rooms in a small building set apart for this 
 purpose. Everybody in the colony, old and 
 young, was urged to visit it, as it stood, new 
 and clean, awaiting occupancy. It was care- 
 fully explained to all these visitors, with a 
 view of doing away with that ignorant dread 
 which most of the lower classes feel for all 
 public institutions of this kind. The half- 
 score beds were tidy and attractive, and 
 there was no ill odour of ether or iodoform to 
 awaken distrust. The advantages of such a 
 place were put before them as clearly as pos- 
 sible, but the main object in showing them 
 the place was that they should be familiar 
 with it ; that no malign air of mystery should 
 enshroud it, and that they might have some 
 pleasant impressions of it. 
 
 I fear that Doctor Barton's practice and 
 my own professional duties suffered consider- 
 
144 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 ably during the first few weeks of the little 
 colony's existence, for one or the other of us 
 was on the ground the greater part of the 
 time. The lesson which I had learned, about 
 using Patrick and Bridget as intermediaries, I 
 did not forget ; and although I felt that my 
 relations with these various families grew 
 more intimate as the weeks went by, }^et I 
 could usually detect a difference in the atti- 
 tude toward me from that toward Patrick or 
 Bridget. And, just here in my record of the 
 life of Circle City, I must chronicle the unex- 
 pected turn in affairs by which we lost a 
 helper in our household and gained a valu- 
 able colonist. 
 
 Patrick and Bridget had been much thrown 
 together by the events of the past winter; 
 they had found occasion for many interviews; 
 just how closely their conversation was con- 
 fined to the affairs of the colony, and the 
 gathering of suitable families, I cannot say, 
 but the plain fact was that they grew much 
 attached to each other, as well as deeply in- 
 terested in the colony plan ; and the result 
 
AB UKBE COSTDITA. 145 
 
 was that, when the families were finally trans- 
 ferred to the country, these two sympathetic 
 workers found their occupation gone ; and 
 their lives suddenly became dull and uninter- 
 esting. Margaret and I were not wholly 
 ignorant of the growing attachment between 
 the two, and were inclined to favour it. So 
 that when Bridget came to my wife one day, 
 and stood blushing and stammering, and 
 twisting the corner of her apron, Margaret 
 knew what was coming. Yes, Patrick and 
 Bridget were to be married. Well, that was 
 not startling ; but we were a little startled, 
 and then increasingly delighted, when we 
 heard that they would like to join the col- 
 ony. Their interest had been very warmly 
 enlisted in the work, and they believed 
 heartily in it. 
 
 When Colonel Royce and I talked it over, 
 we could both commiserate each other, and 
 yet congratulate each other. Each of us had 
 lost a valued helper, but we knew that the 
 presence of Patrick and Bridget in the colony 
 would be extremely valuable in the settling 
 
146 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 of the many difficulties which must inevitably 
 arise. 
 
 And so it proved. A month later they 
 were married, and they went at once to 
 Circle City. Colonel Royce put them at once 
 in charge of the " Boarding House/' as we 
 grew to call it, the family apartments over 
 the store ; and they filled the position to the 
 entire satisfaction of everybody. We gave 
 Bridget a young girl to assist her, intending 
 this arrangement for Bridget's benefit ; but 
 Bridget was a woman of ideas, and, in due 
 time, developed a plan of her own. She soon 
 saw that many of our families knew very 
 little about clean, economic homes, and she 
 started a kind of school in housekeeping. She 
 took from them three young girls at a time, 
 and kept them with her a few months, show- 
 ing them as much as possible about the best 
 ways of cooking and washing and Ccaring for 
 a household. This plan led, rather naturally, 
 to the starting of some more public lessons in 
 cookery ; and, with a range set up in one of 
 the rooms of our " Town Hall," as we called 
 
AB URBE eONDITA. 147 
 
 it, Bridget gave needed instruction to a large 
 number of the women of the colony. 
 
 With regard to the use of the various 
 modern inventions, with which we had 
 equipped the houses, Bridget found great 
 diversities of skill and carefulness. Very few 
 of our people had ever seen, close at hand, 
 steam and electricity used as they could now 
 use it in their new homes. They were 
 delighted with the radiators, and easily 
 learned to use them; but with the electric 
 lights there was some timidity and some 
 clumsiness ; yet in the main, these illiterate, 
 untrained colonists did remarkably well. As 
 to the gas cooking-stoves, Bridget had more 
 difficulty ; but her steady, patient, persistent 
 good nature triumphed. She is an unusually 
 intelligent woman, and, without her, the 
 success of our many minor plans would have 
 been very doubtful. Just at present she is 
 thinking out a scheme for a laundry-house 
 and a bakery for the whole colony ; I have no 
 doubt that she will succeed in carrying out 
 her ideas. 
 
148 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 As for Patrick, he was worth his weight in 
 gold, because of the confidence which the men 
 of the colony reposed in him, and the wise 
 counsel he gave them. He knew a good deal 
 about farm work, and he had quick sympathy 
 and rare good sense. We had been fortunate, 
 too, in the overseers, or directors chosen by 
 Mr. Gleason : they were competent men ; but 
 they were never able to come into as close 
 touch with the city-bred colonists as was 
 Patrick. Two or three times I happened 
 along, when misunderstandings had arisen 
 between some colonists and a director, and 
 the director was fast losing patience with 
 the colonist's stupidity or clumsiness. And 
 Patrick, coming up, would very soon quiet 
 the trouble, and solve the difficulty. The 
 directors had been privately and separately 
 instructed to allow Patrick to have his way, 
 in all such cases. This was not always easy 
 for them to do, but they were won over 
 by results ; and Patrick, on his part, was 
 privately counselled by Colonel Royce, whom 
 he admired profoundly, not to show any over- 
 
AB URBE £ONDITA. 149 
 
 bearing spirit, and not to become at all " set 
 up " by his position, at which Patrick laughed 
 heartily, and touched his hat to his old 
 employer. 
 
 From the first, Doctor Barton and I had 
 felt, even more strongly than had Colonel 
 Royce and the other members of the syndi- 
 cate, the absolute need of making life 
 interesting for the colonists. Colonel Royce 
 and the others were naturally most concerned 
 with the financial and economic features of 
 the colony's management ; but Doctor Barton 
 and I felt strongly the contrast between the 
 quiet life of the country, and the feverish, 
 stimulating vibrations of city life ; and we 
 constantly planned to meet this problem, 
 realising that if the desire for amusement 
 were not met, in our colonists' overstimulated 
 natures, they would soon begin to long for 
 the old crowded dens and alleys. So we were 
 glad when the completion of our trolley line 
 put us in direct, easy communication with 
 the great metropolis, fifteen miles away. 
 Regular fares were charged on these cars, 
 
150 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 and the families were allowed to visit the city 
 as they chose. They were not forbidden or 
 forced, in any direction, but were simply 
 advised, in this as in many other matters ; 
 and, through Patrick and Bridget, as well as 
 by the regular reports of the directors of 
 work, Colonel Royce and I kept in pretty 
 close touch with the conduct and condition of 
 every family. 
 
 Fortunately, one of the storekeepers was 
 well trained in vocal music, and one of the 
 directors turned out to be a skilful player on 
 the cornet. As soon as I learned these facts, 
 I set on foot plans for the forming of a sing- 
 ing society and a brass band. I believed 
 strongly in the value of music, as the most 
 popular of the arts. Margaret had urged the 
 need of a little beauty in the cottages, and 
 had purchased, with good taste, enough 
 photographs, and other pictures of an inex- 
 pensive sort, to put two or three in each 
 home. I did not object, of course, to this, 
 but I had been looking to music as the most 
 valuable of the arts for our purpose of enter- 
 
AB URBE CONDITA. 151 
 
 tainment, and I was much pleased at seeing 
 the singing society and the band started. 
 As an incentive to exertion, we occasionally 
 hired a band from the city to come out and 
 give an evening concert at the band-stand 
 in the centre of the village. This was much 
 enjoyed, and while the children gathered 
 close around the players, the older people 
 could remain in their own houses or in front 
 of them, and hear the music with great dis- 
 tinctness. 
 
 Of course these band concerts were not our 
 only entertainments. Margaret had planned 
 a course of readings, and sleight-of-hand per- 
 formances, and concerts, even before the 
 colony was settled ; and two of these were 
 given each week. For purposes of this sort, 
 we had one large central hall ; this was our 
 largest structure. It had a large auditorium 
 on the second floor, reaching to the full 
 length and breadth of the house. Then on 
 the lower floor there were several smaller 
 halls, useful for various kinds of gatherings. 
 
 We had many applications from all sorts 
 
152 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 of lecturers and entertainment bureaus, ask- 
 ing for engagements. One of the first letters 
 that came, after our colonisation scheme 
 became generally known through the press, 
 was a request from a temperance lecturer, 
 who wished to give a free lecture on the 
 "Evils of Alcohol." The proposal came 
 first, of course, into Margaret's hands, as 
 she had been tacitly understood to be a 
 committee of one on public entertainments; 
 but as there was a great deal involved in a 
 lecture of this kind, in addition to the lecture 
 itself, she submitted the matter to the syndi- 
 cate, at its next session. 
 
 We talked over the problems of liquor- 
 selling, and license, and prohibition. The 
 local laws of the two townships in which 
 our colony was placed were for license, and 
 left us quite free to use our own judgment 
 as to methods for dealing with this most 
 difficult problem. Among the members of 
 our syndicate there was some little diversity 
 of opinion. One of the board was a firm 
 believer in prohibition. Two members were 
 
AB UKBE CONDITA. 153 
 
 in the habit of using wine at their own 
 tables. One man had studied the Gottenbers- 
 system of licensing, and thoroughly believed 
 in it. Thus we were divided in our views; 
 however, all of us recognised the extreme 
 seriousness of the problem. But all of the 
 men were sensible, and knew how to take 
 account of the facts of human nature, and 
 Doctor Barton's views were finally adopted 
 and put into practice. 
 
 His views were that alcoholic liquors 
 should be treated as medicines and not as 
 beverages ; that they should be kept for sale 
 in the drug department of our store, and 
 sold exactly as other goods were sold, with- 
 out any apparent restrictions. Nevertheless, 
 all our corps of officials (storekeepers, direct- 
 ors, and especially Patrick and Bridget) 
 were privately instructed to be very watch- 
 ful as to the purchase and use of these things. 
 Doctor Barton felt that, while such a plan 
 might or might not be expedient in a large 
 city, yet in our small community, every 
 man, woman, and child was known and could 
 
154 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 be watched carefully, and the abuse of our 
 plan could soon be detected. If I may here 
 anticipate events a little, I will say that in 
 one or two cases there came to be evidence 
 of abuse of this plan. Doctor Barton had 
 gotten into the way of appointing certain 
 times and places for consultation ; and he 
 discovered that two of our colonists bought 
 a little whiskey, instead of the drug he had 
 prescribed for them. He therefore held a 
 plain talk with them, and told them briefly 
 that such conduct would not be tolerated, 
 and warned them never to attempt it again. 
 This attempted deceit, however, did not 
 happen until several months after the plan 
 had been put into operation. 
 
 Closely joined to this problem of temper- 
 ance was the problem of some sort of a club- 
 room. I had long before seen that much of 
 the drinking that is done, is not so much from 
 love of the liquor, as from social pressure. 
 Men make bar-rooms into club-rooms, and, 
 after congregating there, one treats another, 
 and the other reciprocates, until much money 
 
AB URBE CONDITA. 155 
 
 is spent, and intoxication results. So we 
 early arranged to make one of the lower 
 rooms of the hall (" Barton Hall," we had 
 named it, after our good friend the doctor), 
 into a club-room and reading-room. And 
 there the men were free to come and smoke, 
 and read the papers and magazines which 
 were provided for them. This led to a series 
 of smoke-talks, given by Doctor Barton, my- 
 self, Colonel Koyce, and others, and a kind 
 of debating club grew up, which proved an 
 excellent means of education. 
 
 However, this word " education " leads me 
 to explain at some length the important place 
 which this matter took in the life of our 
 colony. 
 
CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 EDUCATION SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS. 
 
 I HAD felt from the first that we must use 
 the greatest wisdom and care in our educa- 
 tional work. Although the people who made 
 up our colony were, in a sense, acknowledged 
 failures, unable to meet the exacting demands 
 of city life, yet my study of the laws of 
 heredity led me to know that their children 
 might develop capacities far in advance of 
 the parents. We therefore felt the obliga- 
 tion of furnishing good instruction for them, 
 so that any latent talent which they might 
 have might be encouraged and developed. 
 
 Our schoolhouse was the last of our " pub- 
 lic buildings," as we called them, to be 
 finished. But, as we did not satisfy our- 
 selves at once regarding teachers, we were 
 not greatly disturbed by the delay. The 
 
 156 
 
EDUCATION. 157 
 
 teacher whom we at first engaged did not 
 prove a success. She was well trained in the 
 simple branches of knowledge which she was 
 expected to teach, but she was practically 
 an invalid, and unable to cope with the bois- 
 terous spirits of the boys and girls. We had 
 gathered the children into Barton Hall at 
 first, and the situation made the teacher's 
 duties more than usually burdensome. Pat- 
 rick acted as school committee and truant 
 officer in one ; he was a little weak himself 
 in reading and spelling, but had a natural 
 aptitude for "figures," and he had unbounded 
 faith in book-education. 
 
 The teacher struggled along, with ill suc- 
 cess, for three weeks, and then we saw that 
 she could not do the work. So Margaret set 
 about finding some one to take her place. 
 After considerable writing of letters, and one 
 or two interviews, we decided upon a Miss 
 Emily Vaughn, and subsequent events showed 
 that the decision was most fortunate. Miss 
 Vaughn was a graduate of a New England 
 college, had taught in the public schools of 
 
158 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 one of our large cities, and, after three years' 
 experience, had gone enthusiastically into the 
 life of a college settlement in New York. 
 There she remained a year, and would have 
 continued, had not Margaret learned about 
 her, through a common friend, and induced 
 her to take up our educational work in Circle 
 City. The character of this work attracted 
 her. She had studied social problems deeply, 
 and had thrown herself earnestly into the 
 work of solving them ; but the overwhelming 
 odds against philanthropic educational work 
 in a vast, crowded metropolis, had grown 
 more and more to weigh upon her, and she 
 was becoming hopeless of reaching any satis- 
 factory results. So our experiment of Circle 
 City and improved country life as a remedy 
 for debased city life, all this attracted her, 
 and the result was that we secured a most 
 valuable worker. She brought with her a 
 young friend, a girl of about twenty, and we 
 put the two into full responsibility for the 
 work. 
 
 Miss Vaughn was tall and dark, rather dig- 
 
EDUCATION. 159 
 
 nified in movement, with penetrating black 
 eyes, which opened slowly, but firmly. The 
 children could feel her presence, even before 
 she spoke. Indeed, she spoke little. What- 
 ever a nod or raised finger could do, she did 
 in that quiet way. She seemed a little auto- 
 cratic at first ; but, as her work went on, and 
 she showed her remarkable executive power, 
 and her endless resources, we gladly gave 
 over to her the entire management of all our 
 educational work. Of course our school 
 equipment, our educational "plant," could 
 not compare with the equipment of the best 
 schools and academies of the land ; but, after 
 all, everybody who has had experience in 
 educational matters knows that system and 
 method and mechanical appliances are in- 
 ferior to the inborn genius for teaching which 
 certain people possess. 
 
 This inborn aptitude, made up of quick 
 sympathy and self-control, was characteristic 
 of Miss Vaughn in a high degree; and as I 
 talked with her from time to time about our 
 colony, and about the important part which 
 
160 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 school life must play in it, I was greatly 
 pleased at the quick, intelligent way in which 
 she grasped my ideas. 
 
 Every teacher has not only general apti- 
 tude for study of any and all sorts, but is 
 sure to have a certain special aptitude for one 
 kind of study, or one class of studies. For- 
 tunate it was for the success of our plan that 
 Miss Vaughn had a keen love for the sciences 
 rather than for history or mathematics or 
 any other department of education. She was 
 well equipped in all these other fields, but 
 the sciences, based on observation of nature, 
 were her greatest enthusiasm. 
 
 "The fundamental aim of the public 
 schools of our nation," I said to her, "is 
 to make good citizens. But our fundamental 
 aim is a stage earlier than that, yet in har- 
 mony with it ; for our aim is to make these 
 children love the life of the country. We 
 shall, of course, teach the rudiments of 
 mathematics, and geography, and history, 
 and many other branches; but, primarily, we 
 must make these children enjoy the re- 
 
EDUCATION. 161 
 
 sources of nature around them. Their 
 position affords them advantages for the 
 study of the natural sciences, which city 
 life does not. The city teacher, if she wishes 
 to illustrate her instruction in geology, or 
 botany, or zoology, or ornithology, or ento- 
 mology, must send out into the country for 
 specimens. But we have them all about us 
 in limitless quantity. So that every child 
 can gather them, and study them, and form 
 collections for himself. I even look forward 
 to seeing the parents themselves become 
 interested in the wonders of rock and tree 
 and bird and insect, through the interest 
 which you will awaken in the children. 
 And my firm belief is that the success 
 of our experiment rests more upon the 
 implanting and maintenance of this love of 
 nature, animate and inanimate, than upon 
 the size of the crops and harvests gathered 
 from the fields and gardens. Because even 
 though the crops and harvests are small, — 
 and they will be at first, — they will at 
 least give these half-starved, sickly people 
 
162 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 a better living than they had in those city 
 dens, which you know so well." 
 
 Thus Miss Vaughn and I came to under- 
 stand each other, and I felt sure that she 
 was well qualified for the work. She had 
 a gift of enthusiasm which was enkindling 
 to other more lethargic minds. She and 
 her assistant talked separately with every 
 boy and girl, and formed an opinion as to 
 what class he or she would best fit. She 
 called at many of the cottages, and won the 
 confidence of the mothers ; and one day she 
 broached to me a plan of a kind of day nurs- 
 ery, which two young English girls among 
 the colonists could take charge of. This idea 
 we carried out, using one of the lower rooms 
 in Barton Hall, and thereby a score or two 
 of worried mothers were set free to carry 
 on their households more effectively, and 
 even to help their husbands and brothers 
 in the lighter work of their farms. 
 
 I doubt if the legendary Pied Piper of 
 Hamelin had greater bewitchment over the 
 hearts of his juvenile followers than did 
 
EDUCATION. 163 
 
 Miss Emily Vaughn over her pupils. She 
 carried out my ideas of nature-study even 
 more successfully, and with greater origi- 
 nality, than I had dared hope. She not 
 only used stories of birds and insects and 
 animals as reference-books, but she made 
 them the regular reading-books ; and even 
 before the little ones could read they could 
 distinguish between the orders of Diptera and 
 Coleoptera, and knew about Ursa Major and 
 the Pleiades, and could recognise the notes of 
 a thrush or bobolink as far away as they 
 could hear them. It was interesting, even 
 to me, to see the children trudging over the 
 fields, when the steady fine summer weather 
 had set in, with their butterfly-nets and their 
 big-mouthed bottles ; they grew wildly excited 
 over Crusader beetles and Tiger beetles, and 
 popped them into the bottles with an enthusi- 
 asm which no autograph hunter or stamp 
 collector could possibly equal. 
 
 Then there were the endless picnics and 
 excursions which were arranged for them, 
 not days of idleness by any means ; but Miss 
 
164 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 Vaughn took them always to some place 
 which illustrated, in rocks or trees, or land- 
 formation, the lessons of geology or botany 
 which she never tired of imparting. 
 
 Quite as I anticipated, the fathers and 
 mothers also became interested. The old 
 saying never found better illustration than 
 in our colony life, that " wherever the lambs 
 are carried, there the sheep will follow." I 
 saw, now and then, some big German chasing 
 a butterfly ; and I knew that in his household 
 was some child who was studying Diptera. 
 Or I might notice a long, lank, swarthy 
 Italian pick up a stone and examine it ; and 
 then I surmised that in his cottage was 
 some youthful collector of mineralogical speci- 
 mens. The parents could not help becoming 
 interested. 
 
 One of the best lectures which we ever 
 had, in Barton Hall, was given by a skilful 
 vocalist, with the assistance of coloured stere- 
 opticon views. He threw on the screen 
 beautiful pictures of almost all the birds 
 which could be found in our climate, and 
 
EDUCATION. 165 
 
 then he imitated their songs and calls, so 
 that everybody present — and the audience 
 that evening numbered about three hundred 
 — was delighted, and went away eager for 
 the sun to rise, the next morning, in order 
 that observations might be made on the notes 
 of the real birds. 
 
 Sometimes, on my rather frequent visits to 
 the colony, I would find myself stopped by 
 a group of children, and my judgment asked 
 regarding the name of a tree or plant ; they 
 evidently considered me a repository of 
 universal knowledge. Sometimes I could 
 give them the desired information, and some- 
 times I could not ; but the one thing which I 
 always kept in mind, in meeting them, was 
 to show great interest in the specimen under 
 discussion. 
 
 Quite naturally, the little library of a 
 thousand volumes, with which the colony 
 started, contained many books dealing, in 
 a simple, practical way, with the natural 
 sciences. Two of the older and more intelli- 
 gent boys were put in charge of this library, 
 
166 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 and became deeply interested, and fairly 
 efficient;, in the care and distribution of the 
 books. 
 
 I was more than pleased with Miss 
 Vaughn's wise administration of our educa- 
 tional work. She not only took my ideas, at 
 the first, but, as the weeks went by, and 
 ripened into months, she adapted herself to 
 new conditions, as they arose ; and she origi- 
 nated many little devices and methods, to 
 meet problems which I had not clearly fore- 
 seen. That she had fully grasped the nature 
 of our colony-experiment was evident to me 
 when she remarked thoughtfully, one day, 
 " Education in the past, I believe, has dealt 
 too much with the intellect, and too little 
 with the heart. It has imparted ideas, and 
 has neglected emotions. And the only unique 
 feature of our system of education, here in 
 Circle City, is simply its emphasis of that 
 emotional factor. We need to lead these 
 children — and even their parents, indirectly 
 — not merely to know the truth, but to love 
 it, to love realities; and I find that a child 
 
EDUCATION. 167 
 
 who is accustomed to search for the facts of 
 natural science, accustomed to seek realities, 
 in trees and birds and rocks, and insect life, 
 is wonderfully well started on his way toward 
 realities in conduct ; that is to say, toward 
 moral truth, and upright personal living." 
 
 One matter which had caused me a little 
 uneasiness, was helped to a favourable solu- 
 tion by Miss Vaughn. It was this. We all, 
 syndicate advisers and workers, had con- 
 stantly the anxiety before our minds, that 
 these people, despite all our efforts to make 
 their life in the colony attractive, might be 
 drawn back into the great maelstrom of the 
 city. We had discussed this danger, with 
 reference to our trolley-line, so closely uniting 
 the colony to the metropolis. A few had 
 felt doubt about keeping open so direct and 
 available a means of communication and of 
 possible desertion. However, we were, as a 
 whole, agreed upon having the railroad; but 
 we were careful to show no anxiety, openly, 
 about desertions. 
 
 The way in which Miss Vaughn helped 
 
168 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 us, was by working skilfully upon the sym- 
 pathies and loyalties of the children. She 
 was convinced that if they were bound close 
 to the colony, by ties of affection and joy- 
 ous association, they would influence greatly 
 the opinions and decisions of their various 
 homes. So she always spoke enthusiastically 
 of country life, and compassionately of 
 crowded city life. And, after a few months 
 had passed, she began to take groups of 
 children into the city, on visits. Not by 
 any means taking them as a reward, but 
 always making some errand of business or 
 study out of the trip. For instance, she 
 took them, on one occasion, to visit certain 
 places of historic interest, and kept them 
 busy studying these places and the scenes 
 therewith connected. Again, she took them 
 to visit a museum of natural history, to verify 
 some of the specimens which a class had 
 collected. Also, at various times, she took 
 small groups to study certain industries and 
 manufactories. In every case she dealt with 
 the metropolis as if it were a most unattract- 
 
EDUCATION". 169 
 
 ive, objectionable place, containing some 
 points of interest, but utterly undesirable 
 to live in, and wholly incomparable with the 
 quiet, varied, free life of the country. 
 
 She often reported to me little scraps of 
 conversation among the children, which she 
 overheard. We were both greatly pleased 
 at finding our boys and girls, well fed, tidy, 
 brown, and happy, as they now were, look- 
 ing with pity on the children of the slums, 
 and at those dirty homes as repulsive. 
 
 A system of education, however, which 
 deals only with the visible and tangible 
 things of life, is incomplete. Botanical and 
 geological specimens are only the near ends 
 of knowledge, and the normal human mind 
 and heart push out in search of the remote 
 ends. Our educational system at Circle City 
 took account of not only the lower faculties 
 of the understanding, but was intended to 
 provide, also, for the higher faculties of the 
 reason and the imagination. 
 
 To myself, as professedly a specialist in 
 these matters, the religious training of the 
 
170 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 colonists was entrusted ; and I soon saw that 
 there were several distinct ways of giving 
 these people and their children the funda- 
 mental primary emotions, out of which the 
 various religious helps and faiths may be 
 later specialised. Wonder is the root of 
 religion ; wonder is the inquiry of the heart ; 
 and it soon passes, if carefully nurtured, into 
 reverence and into trust. Religion is, essen- 
 tially, an emotion ; and I saw that it must 
 be clearly recognised as such, and dealt 
 with emotionally. So I came to rely, for 
 the deepest and most permanent religious 
 impressions upon the children, on what Miss 
 Vaughn — a very devout soul — might find 
 in her heart to say to the classes and the 
 individual scholars, as she taught them the 
 facts of the natural sciences. 
 
 I say frankly that we did not believe 
 that religion was a supernatural revelation 
 to man; we believed it to be a natural 
 revelation to man, as is all beauty or truth. 
 We therefore counted on finding, in the 
 hearts and minds of these young people, 
 
EDUCATION. 171 
 
 an intellectual and emotional response to 
 the reverent ideas and feelings which Miss 
 Vaughn expressed, from time to time, in the 
 course of her teaching. Miss Vaughn's 
 religion was simple ; simpler and less differ- 
 entiated into specific beliefs than my own ; 
 yet, in the main, we agreed very well, and 
 I could always supplement her reverent 
 comments on the wonderful adaptations in 
 nature, by illustrations and applications of 
 my own. This fundamental instruction in 
 religion, through the marvels of outer phys- 
 ical nature and the emotions of the human 
 heart, was our chief consideration. We 
 aimed, thus, at making our young people 
 first theists, as opposed to atheists. "We 
 brought them thus within the broad realm 
 of universal religion ; but more was needed. 
 We wished them to enter into sympathy 
 with that highest form of religion which the 
 world has ever known, — Christianity. We 
 accomplished our aim, naturally, through 
 historic study. Doctor Barton aided us 
 greatly in this work. He took up the study 
 
172 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 of the various religions of the world, and 
 became deeply interested. Then he gave a 
 course of lectures at the times of his regular 
 medical visitations to the colony. He was a 
 good talker, and his enthusiasm was con- 
 tagious. The lectures were given in the 
 evenings, and were open to all the colonists, 
 though, of course, were not compulsory. 
 The doctor gave a short sketch of each of 
 the ancient religions and their founders, and 
 then led up naturally to several lectures on 
 the Christian religion and its founder, treat- 
 ing it exactly in the same clear, impartial 
 way in which he had treated Confucianism, 
 and Buddhism, and Islamism. Even the 
 problems of the miracles he dealt with 
 exactly in one religion as in another. The 
 record regarding the parting of the Red Sea, 
 for Moses and his people, he considered in 
 the same fair-minded way in which he con- 
 sidered the record about Jesus walking upon 
 the sea, or raising Lazarus from the dead. 
 
 Thus the minds of the hearers were led, 
 through gradual and natural steps, from 
 
EDUCATION. 173 
 
 lower to higher, and came to the desirable 
 point where they were in sympathy with 
 Jesus of Nazareth, because they saw the 
 noble, divine place he had filled in the 
 world's history and progress ; and they were 
 in sympathy with his emphasis of love to 
 God and man, because they felt, in their 
 own hearts, that these emotions were a part 
 of the great tidal currents of the Infinite. 
 
 Thus the instruction of old and young 
 went on. Miss Vaughn took notes, secretly, 
 of Doctor Barton's lectures, and, with her 
 remarkable power of adaptation, arranged 
 them in her own mind for presentation to 
 the younger minds of her scholars. 
 
 However, in addition to these channels of 
 " impression " upon the religious natures of 
 our colonists, I saw that there was another 
 side, quite as important in its way. It was 
 the side of " expression." I sought to adapt 
 to the needs of our people means of worship. 
 There are currents of inflowing, and currents 
 of outflowing, in human hearts ; inlets and 
 outlets. Man needs not only to learn, intel- 
 
174 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 lectually, but needs, also, to express himself 
 emotionally ; this holds true in all kinds of 
 mental and emotional life, and in none more 
 absolutely than in his religious life; so the 
 problem of public worship faced me and puz- 
 zled me, because, with public worship, the 
 elements of theology and liturgy, beliefs, and 
 forms, came into prominence, At first I 
 went out Sunday afternoons and held relig- 
 ious services in the hall. This continued for 
 a month or two. I avoided all doctrinal 
 matters, and dealt wholly with reverence and 
 love for God, and loyalty to Jesus Christ, and 
 good-will to our fellow men. 
 
 Occasionally Doctor Barton took my place, 
 when engagements prevented me from going ; 
 and I must confess that they grew to like 
 him as leader better than they did me; espe- 
 cially was this true of his sermons or 
 addresses. His words were not as skilfully 
 arranged as mine, for he had not been given 
 the training which I had; but what he said, 
 he said clearly, and, somehow, the people 
 seemed to take his words to their hearts, 
 
EDUCATION. 175 
 
 as they did not take mine. I think they 
 took my exhortations "with a grain of salt ; " 
 they left a margin for my professional bias ; 
 they expected me to tell them that honesty 
 and kindliness were among the noblest char- 
 acteristics of human nature, but they only 
 half believed me. On the contrary, when 
 Doctor Barton told them about people he had 
 met in his medical and surgical experience, 
 and gave plain facts, and deduced sound con- 
 clusions about human hearts from those facts, 
 then the people all seemed to be listening to 
 a new gospel. I do not pause here to discuss 
 this phenomenon exhaustively, with its inter- 
 esting inferences and deductions ; I simply 
 mention it with candour and slight chagrin. 
 After a few months of novelty had worn 
 off, the various theological differences hidden 
 away in the minds of our people began to 
 come to the surface. By personal intercourse 
 with them I gradually learned what their past 
 affiliations had been with religious bodies ; 
 some of them cared very little about keeping 
 up their accustomed forms and ceremonies ; 
 
176 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 but others, as for example those of the Roman- 
 ist faith, were becoming restless without their 
 regular attendance on mass. A few of them 
 even went into the adjoining city, on several 
 Sundays, to attend church ; but by far the 
 larger part had not money enough for car-fares. 
 
 So I saw that we must make some perma- 
 nent arrangement to meet the needs of all. 
 And after a little time used in correspondence 
 and personal interviews, we found a genial, 
 kindly priest, Father Granahan, who agreed 
 to come out regularly and hold services in 
 Barton Hall, according to the ritual of his 
 church. A special dispensation was obtained, 
 and the services were begun, and were carried 
 on acceptably to all. 
 
 This arrangement provided for nearly half 
 of the colony ; then, for the remainder, I 
 decided to form a Union Church ; and I 
 secured a young, enthusiastic graduate of 
 the Harvard Divinity School, this being the 
 only unsectarian divinity school of which 
 I knew in the whole country. And this 
 young man was ordained at the Divinity 
 
EDUCATION. 177 
 
 School by a service in which clergymen of 
 four denominations took part. 
 
 Thus we kept our religious services on a 
 good broad basis ; and we arranged our Sun- 
 days harmoniously, with reference to these 
 meetings. The mass of the Roman Church 
 was said at eight o'clock, and a sermon fol- 
 lowed it. They were good, practical talks, 
 too, that Father Granahan gave. Afterward, 
 at 10.30, the union service for the Protes- 
 tants was held, including a sermon, usually a 
 sound, sensible one ; both our preachers, Ro- 
 manist and Protestant, seemed to be keenly 
 alive to the real needs of our people, in this 
 experimental condition. Then we had a lec- 
 ture of some sort, economic, or scientific, or 
 historic, in the evening, at 7.30 o'clock. 
 
 These evening lectures were attended to by 
 Doctor Barton ; and he chose both subjects 
 and lecturers with great care, having it 
 clearly understood that the general trend and 
 emphasis of each lecture was to be construct- 
 ive, optimistic, and broadly religious. 
 
 Speaking, as I now am, of our efforts in 
 
178 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 educational work in our colony, I must not 
 omit to mention the use we are making of the 
 dramatic art. We have not proceeded far in 
 this direction, so that I cannot say very defi- 
 nitely just what our success is. But I can at 
 least outline our plan. We are making use 
 of plays to teach and strengthen moral and 
 religious principles in the minds and hearts 
 of our people. This is my own plan, and I 
 have been led to try it from seeing how much 
 deeper are the impressions made by ideas or 
 feelings, when coming from the lips of a char- 
 acter on the stage, with scenery and story 
 and costume, than when coining from a 
 speaker in a pulpit or on a platform. 
 
 So I have had these performances, thus 
 far, in the hall, limited to plays which em- 
 phasised the moral and reverent and tender 
 side of life ; and I have had these performed 
 by the very excellent Dramatic Club in my 
 own church. The young people in the club 
 have entered into the work with eagerness, 
 and I am abundantly satisfied with the suc- 
 cess of our plan so far as we have gone with 
 
EDUCATION. 179 
 
 it. The people of our colony are simple in 
 nature, and untrained in their emotions, and 
 all sentiments about home and wife and 
 country and God, when uttered on the stage, 
 are taken as literally and fully as though the 
 scene depicted were actually happening ; and 
 the applause which greets some of these 
 great, noble, foundation sentiments, would 
 electrify many a stumbling, discouraged 
 pulpit speaker, if only he could hear it in 
 response to his own words. 
 
 Thus I have hastily sketched the work which 
 we are doing in educational ways. We con- 
 sider it of the greatest importance for our per- 
 manent welfare. The real value of country 
 life can be felt only by a generation of people 
 who have grown used to it, in its most attract- 
 ive and intellectual presentation. And our 
 educational work aims, first of all, to establish 
 this tie of association and sympathy with fields, 
 brooks, hills, birds, insects, and plant-life, so 
 that these shall be intellectual and aesthetic 
 resources, instead of being, as heretofore, 
 merely bare utilities, or objects of contempt. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 I WAS more than ever struck with Colonel 
 Royce's business shrewdness and far- 
 sightedness, the other day, when he came to 
 my house to talk over some of the knotty 
 points of our colonial problem. I made 
 some remark about house-lots along the 
 route of our trolley-line to the metropolis. 
 I had noticed, on my last visit to Circle City, 
 that several lots were being staked out, and 
 one or two foundations were being dug near 
 the track ; and I said to my friend, " I am no 
 business man, Colonel Royce, but it seems to 
 me that the value of all that new land is sure 
 to rise." 
 
 The colonel smiled. " It has already risen ; " 
 said he, with a quizzical look which puzzled 
 me. 
 
 180 
 
RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 181 
 
 I looked at him in silence, for a moment, 
 and then asked what he meant. " I mean 
 simply this," said he ; "I saw, months ago, 
 before we began work at Circle City, in fact, 
 just as soon as it was clear that the project 
 of a trolley-road was going through, that 
 land along the line was to become valuable ; 
 and I took care of a large part of that land 
 myself, and now I am selling it in the shape 
 of house-lots, for about five times as much as 
 I paid for it. I did not care to ask the syn- 
 dicate to go into this investment. But what- 
 ever I make out of it I shall, as a point of 
 honour, hold for the benefit of our colony, 
 and use in its betterment." 
 
 My eyes were wide open in surprise and 
 admiration, as my far-sighted, noble friend 
 spoke. I realised clearly how he had been 
 able to amass so much wealth, in the few 
 years he had devoted to business life. He 
 was a man of superior perception and cour- 
 ageous will, and he deserved the leadership 
 he had won. 
 
 "While we were talking, Doctor Barton 
 
182 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 entered. He had just come from one of his 
 many visits to Circle City. I had been sur- 
 prised at the great number of visits he had 
 made, of late, to the little colony; but when 
 he informed me that he had taken a younger 
 physician into his office, I could understand 
 better his unusual amount of leisure time. 
 However, Margaret and I had secretly 
 exchanged suspicions regarding the good 
 doctor's relations to our excellent teacher, 
 Miss Vaughn. He showed, without disguise, 
 his unbounded admiration for her ; and, of 
 late, I fancied that I had detected in him a 
 peculiar interest in the dignified young school- 
 mistress. He quoted her sayings and doings, 
 as it seemed to me, rather unnecessarily ; and 
 he often grew confused, as he spoke of her 
 wise, patient dealings with the children and 
 with their parents. 
 
 On this occasion, he had an account to 
 give of Miss Vaughn's somewhat stormy 
 interview with an Italian, the father of two 
 of her pupils. The man had presented him- 
 self at the schoolroom, in an angry state, 
 
EULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 183 
 
 because his boy had been kept after school 
 hours. Doctor Barton said that he himself 
 was in the room, and witnessed the interview. 
 It transpired, however, that the boy had not 
 been kept after school ; he had gone off into 
 the woods, with another boy, to shirk the 
 work which he knew was awaiting him at 
 home, and had told his father a lie. 
 
 " Oh, I wish you could have seen Miss 
 Vaughn," exclaimed Doctor Barton, as he 
 threw himself on a lounge. " She was grand, 
 superb. She just let that glaring Italian talk 
 himself out, while she kept her eyes calmly 
 fixed upon him. She uttered not a word, 
 until he had finished all his loud talk, then 
 she merely said : ' I did not keep your boy 
 after school. He left this room with the 
 others, exactly on the hour. You have made 
 some mistake. You would best question him 
 more closely, before coming here with your 
 excited talk.' Then she turned straight 
 about, and left him ; and he was completely 
 upset, by her quiet way of doing things." 
 
 " That leads me," continued Colonel Royce, 
 
184 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 " to speak of a matter upon which I reflect 
 often, but upon which I have not yet formu- 
 lated any definite plans. Here we have this 
 company of people, several hundred souls, in 
 a manner committed to our care. At present 
 we are maintaining a strictly paternal form of 
 government ; we are taking charge of them, 
 in many ways, and dictating to them the 
 terms upon which they must live. But we 
 do not believe in that kind of communal life, 
 as a permanency, because it leads to either 
 rebellion or slavery, on the part of its partic- 
 ipants. We therefore aim at democracy as 
 the ultimate goal, — self-government ; but 
 just what standard we shall apply, just what 
 requirements we shall impose upon a man 
 to allow him to help govern the colony, this 
 is what I cannot easily settle for myself. 
 We wish these people, as soon as they are 
 qualified for it, to own their houses and lands, 
 and be each legally entrenched in his home 
 as in a castle. So firmly entrenched that no 
 other individual, even the doctor himself, can 
 dislodge him, if he wills to stay." 
 
RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 185 
 
 " Do you think it will be safe," asked the 
 doctor, " to allow even the most industrious 
 of these men to place himself in a position 
 where he can defy and impair the funda- 
 mental policy of the colony ? What would 
 you say to leasing house and farm to such a 
 person, and not selling it outright ? A lease, 
 say, of a hundred years ? " 
 
 We reflected a few moments in silence, and 
 then Colonel Royce said : " No, I confess that 
 I wish to see the full solution of this problem 
 during my own lifetime ; and until these fam- 
 ilies are really legal owners of their estates, 
 and are law-abiding and reasonable, from free 
 choice and not because they are under surveil- 
 lance of some owner or agent, only then will 
 our experiment be completely a success." 
 
 " Well, I think you are right," said Doctor 
 Barton. " I have some anxiety about letting 
 the final decision pass out of our own hands, 
 but we must face even that. And, provided 
 that these people are properly qualified for 
 it, I see no more reason to doubt their ability 
 to govern themselves than I see reasons for 
 
186 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 doubting the ability of this nation, as a whole, 
 to govern itself." 
 
 " But some of us have moments of discour- 
 agement," I ventured to add, laughing, " when 
 we doubt a little the ability of our citizens to 
 govern themselves, and continue long in a 
 stable, safe form of national existence." 
 
 Then Colonel Royce put the very question 
 which was hanging on my lips. " What 
 ought we to require of one of our colonists, in 
 order that we shall dare to put him in full 
 possession of his farm ? " 
 
 Whereupon we marked out, step by step, 
 the following list of requirements. We 
 agreed that a man, in order to become full 
 possessor of his house and land, must have 
 the money to buy the property, and must 
 have paid up his indebtedness incurred during 
 the first year or two, while he was learning 
 how to carry on his work with a margin of 
 profit ; then he must be qualified, mentally 
 and morally ; must be able to read and write 
 and do simple arithmetical computations, and 
 must have satisfied the syndicate of his peace- 
 
RULERS OP THE PEOPLE. 187 
 
 ful, law-abiding temper. We reserved the 
 right to refuse a sale to any man, who, how- 
 ever industrious and skilful he might be, was 
 thought to be a person of evil influence or 
 destructive tendencies. 
 
 This plan we shall carry out when the 
 proper time comes, tacitly making Patrick 
 and Bridget the judges of the people's moral 
 and social fitness, and Miss Vaughn and Doc- 
 tor Barton judges of their mental fitness. 
 When, a few weeks later, Colonel Royce 
 called the people together and outlined to 
 them the general idea of our plan, they took 
 it with approval ; and, if we can bring it into 
 actual working a year from now, we shall 
 start our colony on a far higher level of mem- 
 bership than is seen in the voting classes of 
 our cities and towns. 
 
 Colonel Royce took occasion in his excellent 
 little address to explain to the people that the 
 best talkers in a community or in a trades- 
 union were often not the soundest thinkers ; 
 he cited examples of shallow demagogues, and 
 urged the people to think for themselves, and 
 
188 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 not be blindly led by their emotions. After- 
 ward he said that he thought we would do 
 well to suggest to our various lecturers and 
 preachers that they emphasise this very point 
 whenever germane to the line of their 
 thought. 
 
 " It is from ill-regulated emotions that a de- 
 mocracy has most to fear ; " said he, with con- 
 viction. " There is no emotion so noble that 
 it may not become, when manipulated by a 
 skilful demagogue, a menace to the public 
 weal ; and people must be taught, not how to 
 feel less keenly, but to know when they are 
 feeling, and when they are reasoning; they 
 must learn to distinguish between the two." 
 
 I ought, properly, here, to advert to our brief 
 but conclusive experience with a simple form 
 of that method of self-government known as 
 "the referendum." Before the incident oc- 
 curred, one of the members of our syndicate 
 had much to say in favour of this form of pop- 
 ular arbitration. Afterward he was silent on 
 the subject. The affair was simply this. 
 One of our colonists was the possessor of a 
 
RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 189 
 
 battered old cornet, and thought himself a 
 skilful performer ; but he was so vain and 
 dictatorial that our band summarily turned 
 him out, after he had been a member a few 
 months. Then he set up an opposition per- 
 formance, when they came out and played one 
 evening in the public oval. This was dis- 
 tracting and offensive. We had the power to 
 stop him, ourselves, of course ; but we tried 
 the referendum method, and with this result. 
 The people met, in great wrath, after the 
 band concert was over, and voted expulsion for 
 the offending musician ; unanimously voted 
 it ; and, in their wrath, would have pun- 
 ished him more severely if that had been 
 possible. We of the syndicate, however, de- 
 layed execution of this sentence a week or 
 more, and suggested that the people meet 
 once more, for reconsideration of the man's 
 sentence. And then came out the weak spot 
 in the referendum method. Not a dozen per- 
 sons came. Their wrath had cooled ; they 
 had become interested in their various con- 
 cerns, and would not take the time and trouble 
 
190 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 to meet. So Patrick was quietly deputed, as 
 agent of the syndicate, to see the man and 
 gain a promise of good behaviour. And this 
 was easily done, and the whole disturbance 
 soon sank out of sight. 
 
 The summer months passed away very 
 happily. Margaret and I gave up our usual 
 vacation at the seaside, and took a house in 
 a village adjacent to Circle City. We were 
 so deeply interested in the success of our 
 colony that we really enjoyed this use of our 
 time more than we would have enjoyed the 
 month in some hotel at the shore. In this 
 way we were able to relieve Miss Vaughn and 
 her assistant, giving them a fortnight away 
 from their duties. Whatever plan might be 
 followed in subsequent summers, we decided 
 that during this first and most important year, 
 the machinery of the colony should be kept in 
 full operation. So Margaret and I held a 
 part of the classes, and gave object-lessons, 
 and taught the children in all possible ways. 
 
 We had counted on Doctor Barton's assist- 
 ance during our brief term of service ; but he 
 
RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 191 
 
 strangely disappeared on the day following 
 Miss Vaughn's departure, and several of us 
 could not help wagging our heads a little 
 over this striking coincidence. 
 
 As I drove over each day, and saw, close 
 at hand, the daily working of our experiment, 
 I became easier in mind about the success 
 of our half of it, namely, the important social 
 half. It was evident enough that the people, 
 men, women, and children, were enjoying 
 their life. And how could they help it! 
 " Excitement ? " Why, there was almost too 
 much for me ; there was a steady succession 
 of lectures, and entertainments, and meet- 
 ings, and concerts. The musical talent of the 
 colony was bearing good fruit, in band and 
 orchestra, and, with picnics and excursions, 
 the people had a surfeit of excitement. I 
 think that in later years the colony will do 
 better without quite so much stirring up ; 
 they will have and enjoy a somewhat quieter 
 life ; nevertheless, we have deemed it best, 
 this first year, to lean to the side of sensation 
 and excitement. And, certainly, we are hold- 
 
192 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 ing the people wonderfully, and their happy, 
 wholesome faces attest the well-being of their 
 bodies and minds. 
 
 There has arisen one very natural com- 
 plication, which has caused some difference 
 of opinion; and, as it is logically connected 
 with the problem of interesting and amusing 
 and holding our people, I may as well speak 
 of it here as anywhere. I had for some time 
 foreseen it, and yet did not care to force 
 it into discussion and debate. It was the 
 question of the proper use of Sundays in 
 our weekly programme. 
 
 I had already provided for church worship 
 and for a study of the Scriptures, and even 
 for instruction in social and economic ques- 
 tions. Thus I had tried to meet the various 
 needs of the various classes of minds within 
 our colony; but the problem of amusements 
 I had not definitely met ; and, before long, 
 that was forced upon us. The church service 
 and the Sunday-school instruction, and the 
 lectures, all these I classified as educational; 
 they are that, for everybody, whatever his 
 
KULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 193 
 
 social situation. But, outside the large 
 majority who were content with these uses 
 of the day, there were many, young and old, 
 who desired to make the day more of a holi- 
 day, and give it up to sports and pastimes. 
 
 The problem was not an easy one for us. 
 It was not enough to state the general princi- 
 ples involved, not enough to point out that 
 the day was, essentially, a day of rest, and 
 that rest comes as much by change of occu- 
 pation as by utter indolence. No, we were 
 compelled to decide upon concrete cases, 
 and we found it hard to draw the line. 
 
 In the first place, let me say that, from 
 the beginning, I had caused to be kept an 
 accurate record of attendance at all the Sun- 
 day exercises, lectures, services, and classes 
 for religious study. I had no definite pur- 
 pose when I ordered this done, but I antici- 
 pated difficulties regarding the use of Sunday, 
 and I fancied that I might find it convenient, 
 later, to know just what persons devoted 
 some part of the day to pursuits other than 
 work or play. 
 
194 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 Of course, all regular work was stopped 
 on that day. At times, there came up ques- 
 tions about the care of hay, or live-stock, 
 and the like ; but no absolute rules were laid 
 down. These matters were touched upon 
 occasionally, in the sermons and lectures, 
 but I foresaw that compulsion would be bad, 
 and would induce reaction and rebellion. 
 
 However, public opinion was strong enough 
 to settle that no regular work should be 
 done. But, outside of that, came the prob- 
 lem of games and noisy diversions. The 
 boys wished to play ball; the band asked 
 if they could not give a concert ; and several 
 mothers inquired of me whether I approved 
 the reading of any books beside the Bible. 
 Also, there were a few copies of the Sunday 
 newspaper to be seen about the place. 
 
 Each of these questions we found ourselves 
 compelled to pass upon separately. But we 
 divided them into two classes ; namely, those 
 which could disturb anybody, other than the 
 person engaged in them, and those which 
 were quiet and unobtrusive. Regarding only 
 
RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 195 
 
 the class involving public disturbance did we 
 dare attempt to dictate. There, however, 
 we drew the line. We tested the opinions of 
 the people beforehand, found we could trust 
 them, and called a public meeting, at which 
 the merits of the questions were candidly 
 presented ; and then we called for a vote, 
 and that vote was almost unanimous for peace 
 and order. So we had no band concerts, and 
 no noisy demonstrations of any kind, in or 
 near the circle of the colony. A mile away, 
 however, there were some fields which were 
 available for sports ; and whoever desired, 
 was free to go there and indulge in all the 
 noisy recreation he might wish. 
 
 What it amounted to, when one of us was 
 asked for his opinion on Sunday observance, 
 was this : that we did not discountenance the 
 recreation side, but we urged the use of some 
 hours of the day in cultivating the higher 
 faculties of the mind and heart. And here 
 came in the value of our record of attendance : 
 by it we could see who were using the day 
 for pastimes only, and who were using it for 
 
196 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 religious and moral education also. Person- 
 ally, I felt and said that the full use of the 
 day would include three things : united wor- 
 ship in a church service, and religious and 
 moral education, and games like baseball, 
 cricket, golf, and others ; these games to be 
 carried on well outside the limits of the colony 
 circle. 
 
 However, the social or educational part of 
 our colony life is but half of it. There is 
 also a financial half. We have come to di- 
 vide the policy of Circle City into these two 
 halves : first, the Social Half ; we must make 
 life in the country desirable and joyful. 
 Second, the Financial Half ; and that half 
 we subdivide into quarters : into the Industrial 
 and the Agricultural elements. Of these two, 
 the agricultural part is so far advanced that 
 we are convinced of its success. There are 
 a few of our colonist-farmers who will earn a 
 considerable sum of money this year, enough 
 to pay the moderate rent we have named. 
 And, another year, there will be a large ma- 
 jority who will be able to fully support them- 
 
RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 197 
 
 selves and begin to repay the amount charged 
 against them during this year. Of course 
 they all live very simply, frugally, and not 
 quite as I myself would like to live ; but 
 when their present mode of life, with its 
 comfort and cleanliness, is compared with the 
 slum life, out of which most of them came, 
 the difference for the better is vast. 
 
 This Social Half of our problem has been 
 the half for which Doctor Barton and Marga- 
 ret and I personally took most responsibility. 
 The Financial Half, with its two divisions, 
 Agricultural and Industrial, has fallen natu- 
 rally to the especial care of Colonel Royce 
 and the sound business minds of our syn- 
 dicate. They agree with me that the agri- 
 cultural part is assuredly successful ; they 
 no longer look upon it as an experiment. 
 The first year is the most trying one, and its 
 results already give convincing proofs of the 
 permanent success of the colony. They will 
 hold a kind of fair, or exhibition of products 
 each year, with awards of prizes ; and this 
 has had perceptible influence on the families. 
 
198 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 Regarding the Industrial division of our 
 colony work, we are still in doubt, though 
 there is every reason to expect entire success. 
 In this field of effort a considerable number of 
 minor industries are already in operation, and 
 the people show great capacity for learning 
 how to carry them on. Of these I shall speak 
 more in detail, hi our next chapter. At this 
 point in my narrative I wish to say that we 
 have proceeded far enough in our experiment 
 to be able to generalise a little, with some 
 assurance, and to verify by facts certain of 
 the theories of human nature with which we 
 started. 
 
 First of all let me say, with as much force 
 as I possess, that among all the products of 
 our colony, we find healthy, happy men, 
 women and children to be the most satisfac- 
 tory. The fact that we can develop these, out 
 of the pale, hopeless specimens of humanity 
 which we took from the crowded dens of the 
 metropolis, — this alone would justify our ex- 
 periment. Involved in this kind of product, 
 however, are other products, material and spir- 
 
RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 199 
 
 itual. If the colony were not a financial and 
 social and sanitary success, the faces of onr 
 colonists would not show such evident signs 
 of prosperity and content. Nearly all of 
 them are now realising that they amount to 
 something ; that they can do something in 
 life ; that they deserve and have a place in 
 the world. Their self-respect is restored ; 
 they have lost that haunted look which they 
 once wore, and wear an expression of con- 
 fidence in themselves and in all whom they 
 meet. 
 
 "We are also beginning to demonstrate, as 
 Colonel Royce predicted from the first, that 
 the heaviest cost is at the first. With each 
 year resources are opened up, greater efficiency 
 is acquired, and mistakes are corrected. I 
 remember well Colonel Royce's illustration. 
 " It will be," said he, at one of the first meet- 
 ings of the syndicate, " as it is with running 
 steam-cars ; it will cost much more to start 
 the colony than to keep it going." And his 
 prophecy has been verified. We can even see 
 certain moral qualities and conditions devel- 
 
200 BACK TO THE SOIL- 
 
 oped out of the very nature of things, in the 
 life of the colony. For example, while we 
 have a certain wholesome amount of rivalry, 
 there is lacking among our people much of 
 that fierce competition, which is manifest in 
 most industrial fields, to a wild and deadly 
 degree ; and for this reason, that most of our 
 colonists are occupied in tilling the ground, or 
 in raising such products of farm and dairy as 
 can themselves directly support life. Whereas, 
 in the usual factory or mill life, of the outside 
 world, the products are not themselves capa- 
 ble of supporting life directly, but must be 
 first transferred to markets and transformed 
 into money, before food, clothing, and shelter 
 can be obtained from them. The mill agent 
 knows that no matter what the quality or 
 quantity of his woollen or paper goods may 
 be, the money from their sale will depend very 
 considerably on what products are going out 
 from other mills ; but the farmer or dairy- 
 man knows that, even if a market is hard to 
 find, or even becomes for a time impossible, 
 his produce can support his own life and that 
 
RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 201 
 
 of his family. In short, the life of the farm 
 is much less " competitive " than the life of 
 factory and store ; each man's success is less 
 advanced by the failure of his neighbour, and 
 he is less likely to wish failure to that neigh- 
 bour. Thus there is possible what the life of 
 our colony soon evinced, a general kindliness 
 and readiness to mutually render service, which 
 is rarely seen in mercantile and industrial life, 
 or, if seen, is feigned or forced. Many times, 
 as we saw these friendly offers of help or 
 interest in one another's successes, we had 
 occasion to be deeply gratified at the non- 
 communistic basis of our little city. The 
 greatest possible amount of individual free- 
 dom and ownership was preserved, yet there 
 was present a " communism of spirit," which 
 was genuine and fruitful. 
 
 One interesting feature in the life of the 
 women and girls we have noted, and it will 
 become more marked still, we think, when 
 untiring Bridget succeeds in her plans for a 
 general laundry and a general bakery. It is, 
 that women have far more diversity of tastes 
 
202 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 and gifts than the past has accorded to them. 
 It has been all too hastily, and even selfishly, 
 assumed by men that woman's tastes and 
 qualifications lie mainly in the household ; 
 but with the specialising of work, which is 
 coming more and more, we can already see 
 that not all women are born with a love of 
 cooking and washing, and mending and 
 sweeping. Some love these occupations, but 
 others do not, yet can do good work in cer- 
 tain of the smaller industries, of which I 
 shall later speak, — industries not requiring 
 strength, and often capable of operation under 
 the home roof. Thus we have succeeded in 
 providing for each woman more of the kinds 
 of work she likes, and less of the kinds she 
 dislikes ; and there is, thereby, much less 
 friction and fretting than in most homes. 
 
 Many a time, as I have watched our people 
 going to their work or coming from it, talk- 
 ing interestedly on questions of crops and 
 fertilisers, and planting and harvesting, I 
 have been reminded of the old myth of An- 
 taeus, who was the son of Terra, the Earth ; 
 
RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 203 
 
 in wrestling with Hercules, he renewed his 
 strength each time that he touched foot on 
 the ground. That is the way with these 
 colonists of ours ; once pale, hopeless inmates 
 of city alleys and cellars, now self-respecting, 
 hopeful human beings, not perfect, not always 
 appreciative of the help given them, but 
 raised far above the vicious pauper level of 
 their old life. They have gained strength, 
 like Antseus, by contact with Earth, the 
 mother of us all, so far as our physical frames 
 and senses are concerned. " The landless 
 man has come to the manless land." Nature's 
 balance is restored. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 
 "Who hath despised the day of small things?" 
 
 T WISH to narrate, in this chapter, some 
 ^ of the details of our " smaller industries." 
 When we first planned our farm-colony, there 
 were certain general principles which were 
 clear to us, and we have not departed from 
 them ; for instance, there was our theory of 
 the economic arrangement of the farms and 
 house-lots. Although we have somewhat 
 modified the first stiff geometrical drawing, 
 yet, in the main, the principle of close group- 
 ing at or around the centre of a circle was 
 sound. Then, too, we were prepared to insist 
 on " intensive farming," where the ground 
 was tilled and crops were sought; and by 
 "intensive farming" is meant the more vig- 
 
 204 
 
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 205 
 
 orous and earnest and thorough cultivation 
 of small tracts of land, instead of loosely 
 half cultivating large tracts. The skilful 
 farmers of France and Belgium have shown, 
 incontestably, what fruitful results can be 
 gained from this method of " small holdings." 
 Experience has justified this plan in our com- 
 munity, as in many other places. Also we 
 determined, from the first, to try for a far 
 greater variety of crops than the usual farm- 
 ing in the Eastern States attempts. Most 
 farmers put all their time and effort and 
 money into one crop, — all their eggs into 
 one basket, — and if disaster befalls that one, 
 then all their work and money and time are 
 lost. So we had our " Directors " instructed 
 to keep their minds open to new ideas, and 
 to try for as great a variety as possible of 
 crops. A few of our ventures have failed, 
 but most of them have succeeded, or shown 
 that they could succeed, with slight modifica- 
 tions. The farmers of the past have, in the 
 main, mechanically followed the example of 
 their fathers, and raised hay or grain or 
 
206 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 cattle, simply because their ancestors did the 
 one or the other. We have made the eyes 
 of some of the neighbouring old-style farmers 
 open widely, as they have visited our colony ; 
 and I trust that they have gone away with 
 a few new ideas in their conservative heads. 
 
 However, the line of development in Circle 
 City, which has been most unforeseen, and 
 has gradually and encouragingly opened to 
 us, is this field of what has been called 
 " Smaller Industries," or " Minor Industries." 
 This field has been but slightly developed in 
 the United States, and it affords opportunity 
 for many persons who are dexterous with 
 their hands, but are ill-fitted for work on the 
 soil. Moreover, it largely solves the problem 
 of the long unemployed hours of the hitherto 
 unproductive winter season. Not the least 
 important factor in these winter industries 
 has been the keeping alive the moral tone, 
 the self-respect, of these people. Long periods 
 of indolent gossiping leisure, such as may 
 be observed in most farming communities, 
 during the months of December, January, 
 
FINISHED PKODUCTS AND OTHERS. 207 
 
 February, and March, these exert a very 
 demoralising influence on the people, espe- 
 cially on the men, who have most of the 
 leisure of these months. This inactive season, 
 coming each year, has done much to lower 
 the moral and intellectual and economic 
 power of the rural population. 
 
 In this way, through our " smaller indus- 
 tries," our little colony has taken on, rather 
 more than we anticipated, some of the char- 
 acteristics of a manufacturing village. None 
 of these " smaller industries " which we have 
 undertaken require heavy and costly machin- 
 ery ; and many of them are carried on in the 
 various households, by various members of 
 the families, some of whom had supposed 
 themselves useless encumbrances, incapable 
 of adding to the family income. 
 
 In the furtherance of this plan of utilis- 
 ing the "smaller industries," Colonel Royce 
 and Doctor Barton have put themselves in 
 communication with various offices and bu- 
 reaus, and have informed themselves carefully 
 regarding many small industries, which will 
 
208 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 serve our purpose at Circle City. For ex- 
 ample, there is the manufacture of perfumes. 
 We have noted that the United States im- 
 ports $300,000 worth of attar of roses, 
 each year; and this exquisite perfume is 
 distilled, not from some rare Oriental spe- 
 cies of rose, but from the commoner varieties ; 
 and Doctor Barton has already arranged with 
 his relative, Mr. Gleason, to gather a quantity 
 of rose leaves from the farmers in the towns 
 around, and these will form the basis of our 
 experiment in this direction. Other perfumes, 
 like oil of geranium, can be perfectly well 
 manufactured on a small scale, and we shall 
 make some attempt at it. 
 
 One industry which we are contemplating 
 — but have not yet bought the "plant" for 
 it — is the distillation of the essence of win- 
 tergreen ; and we expect to obtain it from 
 a somewhat surprising source : none other 
 than the twigs and branches of the black 
 birch ; our supply of this kind of " under- 
 brush " is practically unlimited, and costs 
 nothing but the slight labour of gathering. 
 
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 209 
 
 The product is said to be excellent, in vitality 
 and delicacy. 
 
 Then, there are many other industries, such 
 as brush -making, toy-making, knitting, arti- 
 ficial flower-making, some kinds of tailoring, 
 and parts of jewelry manufacture, which Colo- 
 nel Royce has studied, and for which he has 
 made some preparations. We do not expect 
 very great skill, in these industries, nor do 
 we look for very large returns ; but at least 
 one of our two objects will be gained, namely, 
 the occupying our people in work ; and then, 
 whatever money is earned by this work, how- 
 ever small, will swell the total of the year's 
 income. 
 
 A few Italian families one day said that 
 they wished to try what they could do with 
 some hives of bees ; so we provided the 
 bees, and they are thriving, and those dark- 
 skinned people not only are likely to realise 
 something in money from their work, but the 
 presence of the bees (the big Italian variety) 
 seems to remind them of their homes across 
 the sea, and is a source of continuous delight 
 
210 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 to them, and puts them among the most con- 
 tented members of our colony. 
 
 Again, when one man, an enterprising 
 Irishman, expressed a desire to keep not 
 only the one necessary inalienable family 
 goat, but a whole herd of goats, Colonel 
 Royce, to whom I referred the request, looked 
 into the matter, and thought it very practica- 
 ble, especially with the Angora species. One 
 day he handed me the following item, from a 
 daily paper, saying, " You see that other peo- 
 ple are thinking along our lines." 
 
 a 
 
 WELCOME, THE GOAT. 
 
 " The story of the attempt to introduce the 
 Angora goat industry into New England, by 
 way of an experiment on a somewhat ex- 
 tended scale in northwestern Connecticut, 
 which has already been told in these columns, 
 announces, we hope, the beginning of a series 
 of benefits to the brush-grown farms of this 
 section. This is not the first time that we 
 have called attention to the subject, and the 
 
FINISHED PKODUCTS AND OTHERS. 211 
 
 probable advantages of such an industry ; but 
 it is gratifying to learn that an actual test 
 of its value is to be made. The secretary of 
 agriculture suggested it more than a year ago, 
 and perhaps the present experiment is the 
 result of that suggestion; but whether it is 
 or not, it will be watched with eager interest 
 by the farmers of New England. Goat farm- 
 ing has been a decided success in Texas, Penn- 
 sylvania and Iowa, and while its status in 
 this region has yet to be determined, as well 
 as its value commercial^, we have reason to 
 be hopeful of its adaptability to our rather 
 rugged conditions. 
 
 " We have frequently deplored the passing 
 of the sheep from New England farms, not 
 merely as reducing the sources of profit, but 
 as depriving the land of valuable scavengers ; 
 sheep are close grazers, and do not permit 
 that luxuriant grass growth about the roots 
 of trees and bushes, which results in the 
 spread of brush until it occupies the land 
 unless vigilant warfare is made upon it. But 
 it is said that for this purpose goats have a 
 
212 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 greater value than sheep. They are browsers, 
 and not grazers. They live, during the open 
 months at least, upon the briers, the bushes 
 and the ferns which are frequently the despair 
 of the farmer. Their fleeces, their pelts and 
 their carcasses all have value, and would cer- 
 tainly pay for their care. They are hardier 
 than sheep, and do more toward taking care 
 of themselves. 
 
 " There is probably one discouragement 
 about them, the same that has to a con- 
 siderable extent prevented the farmers from 
 restocking with sheep, and that is the neces- 
 sity of close fencing. The goat has even less 
 respect for fixed boundaries than the sheep. 
 He is an enterprising climber and delights in 
 expeditions. But he can be kept within fixed 
 bounds, nevertheless. Furthermore, goats are 
 not as easy game for dogs as the more timid 
 sheep. A herd of these animals, with an 
 appetite that is always asserting itself, turned 
 into a brush-grown pasture would be as effect- 
 ive as an army with bush-hooks, and in a 
 short time would again make it susceptible to 
 
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 213 
 
 cultivation. We welcome the goat to New 
 England ! " 
 
 The result is a herd of twenty goats, feed- 
 ing and fattening themselves on the poorest 
 pasture-land we had in the whole colony ; the 
 creatures eat grass, weeds, twigs, anything, 
 and the milk they give finds a ready market, 
 as do all our products, in the way which I shall 
 presently describe. Fencing these agile crea- 
 tures in is far easier now, in the days of barbed 
 wire, than in the old times of stone walls. 
 
 Profiting by the example of the Italian 
 families and their bees, we have recently sent 
 away for a supply of silkworms, for three 
 French families among us ; we have only a 
 few mulberry-trees on our estate, but not 
 many will be required for the moderate ex- 
 periment which we shall try in this field. I 
 think that the result will be satisfactory, not 
 only in money returns, but in contentment 
 and happiness. 
 
 One industry which will surely prove valu- 
 able during the winters is the ice-cutting. A 
 
214 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 small but very clear pond, northeast of 
 Circle City, will furnish thousands of tons 
 of excellent ice ; Colonel Royce has had an 
 ice-house started, and has drawn plans for 
 some ice-cars, to be run on our trolley-line ; 
 this project will employ a dozen men a part 
 of the winter very profitably, and the re- 
 markable purity of the ice itself will force a 
 market, against the ice cut on many tainted 
 rivers and ponds, and used, with fear and 
 trembling, by many people who read daily of 
 disease germs. 
 
 Although we started all our families on 
 farm work of some sort, and believed that 
 only moderate capacity was needed, under 
 such oversight as we could give to make the 
 labour productive, still we were not surprised 
 as here and there a family or an individual 
 showed entire incapacity, or, rather, indo- 
 lence. A half-dozen of these indolent persons 
 we have sent back in disgrace to their slums ; 
 a part of the remainder we have transferred 
 to other kinds of farm work, and several 
 persons we have drafted into our manufactur- 
 
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 215 
 
 ing work, they showing more aptitude for 
 mechanical work than for agricultural. 
 
 A large part of our mechanical power has 
 been obtained from a large stream, which 
 runs across a portion of our territory. I will 
 honestly confess that when we first planned 
 our colony we did not appreciate full} 7 the 
 immense advantage which could be gained 
 from this abundant stream of water ; but, as 
 new ideas and methods have opened to us, 
 with the actual working of our colony, we 
 have seen that our stream of water, with its 
 two or three falls, is to save us great outlays 
 for steam-power. After the first purchase 
 was made of the tract of land available for 
 the colony, Colonel Royce quietly purchased 
 a long, narrow strip running four miles back 
 along this stream, thus securing three good 
 falls ; and with water-motors and dynamos 
 established there, sometime, we shall control 
 all the mechanical power the colony can need 
 for many } T ears. However, that is a look 
 into the future. As for the present condition 
 of affairs, let me say that at the first, where 
 
216 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 this stream crosses our main tract of land, 
 and drops fifteen feet, in one fall, a wheel 
 was put in and electric power developed, and 
 this served us excellently. As soon as our 
 trolley-line was in working order, we had, 
 through it, an abundance of power, but at 
 higher cost. In the main, we rely on the 
 power from the water-wheel ; and this power, 
 easily available and at low cost, is a very 
 vital feature in production ; in fact, it is, as 
 the members of the syndicate frankly state, 
 an important element in our competition with 
 the large factories, — a competition which is 
 going on in all the great European countries, 
 and one that has worked against the success 
 of small industries, until electricity as a 
 motive power has come into use. We have 
 had some idea of utilising windmills in the 
 production of electric power ; but this in- 
 volves considerable risk. This field of elec- 
 trical application has not been very much 
 explored ; there is but little power in a wind- 
 mill, and the cost of storage-batteries is pro- 
 portionately large. I fear that, at present, we 
 
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 217 
 
 shall not be able to do much with this source 
 of mechanical power. 
 
 Of course we naturally bethought ourselves, 
 at the very first, of the usual industry of 
 making maple syrup and maple sugar. Mr. 
 Gleason went into that field of activity 
 promptly, and set one of the " Directors " to 
 picking out and preparing the rock maple- 
 trees on various parts of the estate ; and of 
 these there are several large groves, which 
 had been previously worked, but not for 
 several years. 
 
 I must not forget to mention a little in- 
 dustry which, although not carried on upon 
 a large scale, is interesting because the work 
 involved in it is light, and has brought into 
 usefulness several of our women-colonists who 
 were feeble in health, but are quite competent 
 to do a large part of this work. I mean the 
 gathering and preparing of various kinds of 
 evergreen, which is sent to the florists of the 
 metropolis, and by them is kept in stock, and 
 is used very advantageously in their decora- 
 tions for parties, balls, church festivals, and 
 
218 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 the like. Of course this field of industry 
 would not amount to much, considered on 
 the " producing " side alone ; but on the 
 "consumer's," is secured by friends in the 
 metropolis, who have learned about our work, 
 and are very ready to help open markets for 
 us. In our next chapter I shall speak, briefly, 
 of the method we have evolved for fixed 
 regular sales at one established market, or 
 depot. 
 
 I have always held strongly to the theory, 
 urging it in the pulpit and out of the pulpit, 
 that there is in the human world much latent 
 capacity and skill which ordinarily does not 
 find development, because it does not find 
 opportunity. This theory of mine has been 
 very fully substantiated by our experience 
 with our colonists, men and women. It is 
 the parable of the talent hid in the napkin, 
 oft repeated ; and we have shaken the nap- 
 kin, and brought to light the talent. Take, 
 for an example, our little handicraft of book- 
 binding. I have been surprised to see how 
 readily several of our men and women ac- 
 
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 219 
 
 quired not only the manual dexterity, but also 
 
 caught the artistic feeling which Mr. W 
 
 brought to their attention in his brief course 
 
 of lectures. Mr. W is a portrait-painter 
 
 by profession, but has chanced to try his hand 
 at book-binding ; and we had him out for a 
 course of six lectures on that handicraft. 
 Then he gave a more private instruction to 
 several of our people, and the result is that 
 some very beautiful work is done ; and, as 
 to selling it, there is but little difficulty. 
 One look at a copy of " Tennyson," or " Silas 
 Maimer," or Montaigne's " Essays," in a 
 really artistic binding, makes every book- 
 lover long to possess it. 
 
 Take, for another example, the industry of 
 embroidery, which is now firmly established 
 amongst us, and is paying a handsome per- 
 centage of returns ; and we stumbled into the 
 work, too, not realising how profitable a field 
 was opening to our people. 
 
 It happened that Mr. Clancy had a younger 
 sister who was to be married, and she needed 
 to have a large number of napkins and table- 
 
220 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 cloths and other articles marked with initials. 
 Mr. Clancy, having much in mind the welfare 
 of our colony, bethought him that some of 
 our people might be able to do this work ; 
 and he mentioned the matter to Bridget and 
 to Miss Vaughn. Now it happened that Miss 
 Vaughn had received, the week before, from 
 the mother of one of her adoring pupils, a 
 present of a handkerchief, marked with her 
 initials. There was the clew ; and, following it 
 up, we have now busily at work a dozen or 
 fifteen women and girls, on various kinds of 
 embroidery, especially the marking in linen. 
 They do the work at odd moments. Miss 
 Clancy's linen was so well done that it gave 
 rise to inquiries, and more orders followed, 
 until now there are orders ahead for three or 
 four months. Mr. Clancy very naturally took 
 especial interest in this branch of industry, 
 and through him our people have worked 
 always toward perfecting in every possible 
 way the quality of their material and their 
 efforts. Finding that the ordinary dyes of 
 the markets were mineral dyes, and were 
 
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 221 
 
 likely to lose their colour, he recalled an old 
 recipe of his grandmother's, for a vegetable 
 dye ; and, from that hint, Mr. Gleason has 
 collected recipes from some of the old people 
 in his town, and the result is that our embroid- 
 erers can produce blues and reds and yellows 
 which are pure and lasting, and easily prove 
 their superiority, after they are once used and 
 tested. 
 
 "We have thus far not needed to urge, by 
 advertisement or in any other way, the sale 
 of our embroideries. Work of so high a class 
 as this appeals to purchasers who have plenty 
 of money, and they examine and talk over 
 one another's table furnishings, and each 
 desires her table and linen closet to be as 
 beautifully equipped as is her friend's. Our 
 embroiderers have been pleased to form them- 
 selves into a little club ; and they read — or 
 have read to them, for some of the older ones 
 cannot read — various art journals. They 
 have sent specimens of their work to three 
 or four exhibitions of " Arts and Crafts Soci- 
 eties," and have been awarded prizes. They 
 
222 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 have found it expedient to adopt a mono- 
 gram, a trade-mark, which I will not attempt 
 to give here, but will simply say that it is 
 an artistic grouping of the two letters which 
 will serve as the heading to our next chap- 
 ter. The designs for the embroideries were 
 at first made by Miss Vaughn ; but one of 
 the younger members of the " Club," an 
 Italian, has shown so much aptitude for de- 
 signing, that overworked Miss Vaughn has 
 given over the larger part of such work to 
 her hands. 
 
 These industries, which I have thus far 
 mentioned, are all of an individual isolated 
 character ; that is, one is not related to an- 
 other, or dependent upon another ; but I now 
 must speak, in closing this chapter, concern- 
 ing a certain class or group of industries, 
 which has opened to us, which we have 
 learned to call " finished products." They are 
 branches of work which require tools and 
 machinery and the use of mechanical power 
 from our electrical water-motor. 
 
 The possibilities of this class of industries 
 
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 223 
 
 opened up to Mr. Gleason and to Bridget at 
 about the same time, though from different 
 causes. In Mr. Gleason' s case it happened 
 thus. He was standing, one day, gazing at 
 the bodies of three fat hogs which were being 
 loaded upon the freight-car of our trolley-line, 
 when, as he told me later, it suddenly occurred 
 to him that those carcasses comprised a value, 
 as they finally would reach consumers, of 
 twenty or twenty-five dollars apiece ; whereas, 
 when they left the hands of our colonist- 
 farmers, they brought only fourteen or fif- 
 teen dollars. There is a difference, reflected 
 Mr. Gleason, of eight or ten dollars on each 
 hog ; and who gets that eight or ten dollars ? 
 Obviously the men who cut up the animal 
 and transform it into lard and bacon and 
 spare-ribs and all the rest, down to the 
 bristles, and even the hoof-cores, which are 
 made into glue. Thus reflecting, Mr. Gleason 
 quickly saw — and the rest of us were quick 
 to see it, when he laid the matter before us — 
 that it was wasteful of opportunities for our 
 farm-colony to allow these hogs to go out of 
 
224 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 their hands so soon, while there was still 
 money to be extracted from them. And there 
 you have the birth of our now rather exten- 
 sive industry in " finished products." 
 
 Colonel Royce and Doctor Barton took the 
 matter up, and soon had a few convenient 
 buildings erected, and we now send to mar- 
 ket — not whole hogs — but pails of lard, 
 and cured hams, and the best quality of sau- 
 sages ; and on all these we receive the usual 
 profit. Indeed, beyond this, finding that our 
 " finished products " from the hogs were so 
 remunerative, we have revolutionised the old- 
 time custom of the family pig-pen, with its 
 two or three grunting porkers, and its nox- 
 ious odours, and have abolished all piggeries 
 within the neighbourhood of the central oval, 
 and have established an extensive piggery 
 at a remote corner of the colony, carefully 
 choosing a place with reference to prevailing 
 winds ; so that the existence of the piggery 
 never would be suspected by a casual visitor 
 to Circle City. Thus we have simply done, 
 in regard to the raising of pigs, what we have 
 
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 225 
 
 done in every other possible field of work, in 
 our colony ; we have specialised ; and special- 
 isation is scientific and economical. 
 
 This application of the method of aiming at 
 "finished products" we have not yet entered 
 upon, in the case of cattle and sheep and 
 goats ; but there is no reason, that we can 
 see, which should forbid its working, and can 
 prevent its giving profitable returns. 
 
 I said that this idea of " finished products " 
 occurred, at about the same time, to both Mr. 
 Gleason and Bridget. In Bridget's case, the 
 idea came to her as she was sending away to 
 market several bushels of berries, blueberries, 
 and blackberries, and was calculating what 
 the value of them would be, as sold to city 
 customers. Then she happened to recall what 
 my wife, her former mistress, had paid for 
 canned berries. At once she saw — as Mr. 
 Gleason had seen — that this produce was 
 going out of our hands too soon, before 
 it had yielded to us the full value that it 
 might; and she saw that in the preparing of 
 canned and dried fruits (and we afterward 
 
226 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 included dried and evaporated apples) we 
 might have a very profitable employment for 
 many of our people. 
 
 She came to me with this new idea, on the 
 very day when Mr. Gleason approached Colo- 
 nel Royce about the hogs ; and I was glad 
 to lay Bridget's plan before the other mem- 
 bers of the syndicate, whose approval it soon 
 won. I amused myself a little, I confess, in 
 urging Bridget to present the matter, herself, 
 before that august body ; but my attempts 
 were vain. She violently protested that she 
 would " drop dead " if she tried such a thing. 
 So the good woman kept modestly in the 
 background, and I presented her plan, and it 
 was carried into operation — on a small scale 
 at first — the very next week. 
 
 At least one other form which our theory 
 of " finished products " is likely to take, is 
 that of articles made of wood, — boxes, 
 platters, trays, some kinds of carved goods, 
 and the like. We have large tracts of 
 maple, elm, birch, spruce, and chestnut, and 
 I think that we shall soon develop this 
 
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND OTHERS. 227 
 
 branch of industry, wooden-ware, and find 
 it profitable. 
 
 However, all this story of " production," in 
 our farm-colony of Circle City, is only one 
 half of the story of industrial life ; " con- 
 sumption " is the other and equally impor- 
 tant half. There cannot long be producers 
 — at least of manufactured goods — if there 
 are not also consumers. And the account of 
 the market which we established in the neigh- 
 bouring metropolis — together with two or 
 three other minor threads of our narrative, 
 gathered up — I shall lay before you, in the 
 next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 c-c. 
 
 THERE have been so many interesting 
 matters brought to light in our colony 
 life, that I find difficulty in restraining myself 
 from giving them in their full details ; but 
 such minute narration might be tedious to 
 the average reader. Certainly, I could not 
 hope to make it as interesting to a person 
 outside the limits of our group of workers, 
 as the events themselves have been to all 
 of us who are closely identified with the 
 colony. 
 
 There, for instance, was the botanical dis- 
 covery of a new variety of the lettuce family, 
 made by the father of one of our boys. The 
 man is an Italian, and is very observing ; and 
 he had become interested in his boy's study 
 of botany, and followed along with him, les- 
 
 228 
 
c-c. 229 
 
 son after lesson. He seems to have rare 
 powers of perception ; and, one day, he brought 
 to Miss Vaughn's assistant (hardly daring to 
 come directly to Miss Vaughn herself) a plant 
 which he had discovered in his pasture, which 
 he had analysed, and could not quite classify, 
 and the assistant could not fully identify 
 it either ; finally it was referred to Miss 
 Vaughn, and together they worked out their 
 problem, and sent their conclusion and a fresh 
 specimen of the plant to a professor at Yale 
 College ; the result was, that our Italian, who, 
 less than a half-year before, was living in the 
 slums, has a flower named after him in the 
 new edition of " Brown's Botany." 
 
 That happened three months ago ; but it 
 was a wonderful stimulus to the study of 
 botany, and indeed of all the sciences, and is 
 talked about even now. 
 
 Then another incident which stirred several 
 groups of our colonists was the correction 
 which was offered by one of the members of 
 the political economy class, at a public lecture 
 one Sunday afternoon. There were about 
 
230 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 fifty people present. Professor Boone, of 
 Tradford Academy, was giving a talk on the 
 subject of " Great Men Versus Their Times ; " 
 and he cited Voltaire as a man who had 
 moulded the thought and shaped the destiny 
 of the world. The professor was conducting 
 the lecture in a familiar and informal manner, 
 and invited questions and suggestions at any 
 point. Accordingly, young Ignacio Stagnaro 
 raised his hand, was called upon, and made 
 a little talk of three or four minutes, explain- 
 ing that Voltaire gained many of his ideas 
 from the English philosophers, during his stay 
 of a year or two in London. Doctor Barton 
 was present, and, like the professor, was 
 quite taken aback at the young man's learn- 
 ing ; on inquiry, it came out that he had 
 selected wisely, and read with great eager- 
 ness, from our library. Doctor Barton tells 
 me that the young fellow has in him the 
 making of a scholar, if only he could be 
 given proper advantages. I shall see that 
 Colonel Royce is told about him. The colonel 
 would be much interested, I am confident, 
 
c-c, 231 
 
 and might be able to open a path of higher 
 education to the lad. 
 
 These, and many other encouraging inci- 
 dents, have been happening all the way along. 
 Our people have shown themselves happy in 
 their country life, and the colony is looked 
 upon by all of us as really beyond the stage 
 of experiment, and now an assured success. 
 Our latest obstacle was the one referred to 
 by me, in making my last record nearly two 
 months ago. It was the problem of a market 
 for our productions, agricultural and indus- 
 trial. At this present date of writing that 
 difficulty has been substantially removed, and 
 anxieties on that final problem have been 
 allayed. 
 
 We saw, soon after the colony was well 
 under way, that even in our first season we 
 would have a very considerable amount of 
 produce. Our hay crop we intended to keep, 
 as the barns, which we had built after the 
 houses were finished, were now completed ; 
 but the eggs and poultry, and butter and 
 vegetables and the like, were far beyond our 
 
232 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 home consumption. The trolley-road put on 
 cars enough for us, freight-cars and refrigera- 
 tor-cars, and we could get the produce to the 
 metropolis very readily; but there came the 
 difficulty. Our overseers, or directors, gave 
 great diligence to the task, but found diffi- 
 culty in selling the produce as fast as they 
 would have liked. It was recognised as of 
 superior quality, but the retailers were already 
 buying of certain farms, and the work of 
 peddling the goods through the streets was 
 unsatisfactory. 
 
 We had many a talk over the matter ; Colo- 
 nel Royce, Mr. Gleason, Doctor Barton, and I, 
 all wrestled hard with the problem. It fell 
 to Mr. Gleason, however, to strike out the 
 plan which now promises to solve our diffi- 
 culties. It came to him in the following 
 manner. He was waiting on a customer, in 
 his own store, in the neighbouring village, 
 and she bought a keg of Shaker apple-sauce. 
 She was a very cautious buyer, and she asked 
 him if the apple-sauce was really the genuine 
 old-fashioned " Shaker Apple Sauce ; " he 
 
c-g. 233 
 
 simply pointed out to her the private mark, 
 burned by the Shakers into all their kegs of 
 apple-sauce. After the woman went out, he 
 began to reflect ; and the line of his reflections 
 he laid bare to us the next day, as we were 
 gathered at Barton Hall, after listening to an 
 admirable concert by our energetic Circle City 
 brass band. 
 
 " That is the secret of it," said he. " As I 
 have figured it out, we must first have every- 
 thing we make of the best possible qual- 
 ity ; then we must mark it, stamp it, with a 
 private mark, a sort of — of — monogram. 
 And we can have that mark protected by 
 law ; and then we must make that mark 
 known just as widely as we can. That is 
 one half of my plan. And the other half 
 is this : we must establish a market, in the 
 large city adjoining us, and must make it a 
 depot, for the sale of our products exclusively. 
 At first we shall not have so very great a 
 variety to offer ; but the variety will be much 
 greater, next year ; indeed, with our indus- 
 trial products added to our agricultural prod- 
 
234 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 ucts, we shall have enough to draw many 
 classes of purchasers." 
 
 Mr. Gleason paused, and waited for sug- 
 gestions. Colonel Royce had evidently caught 
 his meaning very completely ; for he took up 
 the idea, and said : " A part of your plan evi- 
 dently is to make a bold stand against the 
 1 shoddy ' products of our time. There is a 
 strange readiness, on the part of many people, 
 to buy poorly made clothing, furniture, orna- 
 ments, and all kinds of material objects, with- 
 out facing the plain fact that, although the 
 prices are low, the worth of the articles is 
 lower still. The larger part of the buyers, of 
 any city, are of this class. Then, there is 
 another class of purchasers, who insist upon 
 having the best of everything." 
 
 " And can pay for it," broke in Doctor 
 Barton. " But most people haven't the money 
 to pay for the best. How about them ? " 
 
 " You make a good point there," admitted 
 Colonel Royce. " But, although social classes 
 are not distinctly defined, like veins of coal in 
 a mine, I maintain that, somewhere between 
 
c-c: 235 
 
 those two classes, is to be found another 
 large class, and a growing class, I be- 
 lieve, of people who would make some effort 
 to obtain good, sound, honest products, if they 
 could hope to reach them ; people who could 
 deny themselves a little longer, and save a 
 few dollars more, waiting to buy the really 
 good blanket, or chair, or brush, or hat. Now, 
 it is to meet that demand, it is to use that 
 growing reaction against ' shoddy ' products, 
 that Mr. Gleason projects his market ; is it 
 not?" 
 
 The shrewd storekeeper nodded assent. 
 " Yes, and I don't see but we shall be quite 
 up to the time, quite in tune with modern 
 tendencies, in doing what I suggest, for I 
 don't see but we shall really have a depart- 
 ment store, and nothing short of that, if we 
 carry out this plan. It will be simply gather- 
 ing together, under one roof, a large number 
 of diverse products, all offered and sold under 
 one management. As I ventured to say, once 
 before, the city ' department store ' is only 
 the old ' country store,' raised to a higher 
 
236 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 power; and this selling-place for Circle City 
 would be really inside the same general 
 class." 
 
 Doctor Barton had been listening intently 
 to the unfolding of this plan of a market or 
 emporium for the colony, and now he said : 
 " There is one thing which we have thus far 
 avoided, which now we must welcome and 
 encourage ; and it is — publicity. We have 
 thus far kept all reporters and newspaper 
 people as far away as possible. We have had 
 a good healthy instinct against notoriety ; but 
 the time has come to make an advance upon 
 that position. It seems to me clear, that if 
 we open this market, or depot (or emporium, 
 if we desire a more highly coloured word), 
 we need to have the fact known, and the 
 emporium advertised, as widely as possible." 
 
 " I never saw any harm in advertising," 
 remarked the country storekeeper, senten- 
 tiously ; and he folded his arms firmly, and 
 nodded his head with conviction. 
 
 There was a pause of a few minutes, as we 
 reflected carefully upon this new departure, 
 
c-c. 237 
 
 and presently Colonel Royce broke the si- 
 lence, by saying, slowly : " I am inclined to 
 think that we may properly take this step. 
 We are firmly established at the colony, a 
 few hasty items have already gotten into the 
 papers, and, third, as Doctor Barton says, if 
 we are to offer our goods in open competition, 
 the more widely they are known, the better. 
 So I feel inclined to give the doctor a free 
 rein, and let him prepare the public mind, by 
 newspaper articles and all possible advertising 
 schemes. His own good judgment will keep 
 him from obtruding notices of our work where 
 they will disfigure natural scenery, or offend 
 good taste." 
 
 That, as near as I can recall it, was the 
 drift of the conversation on that day, that 
 eventful day in the history of Circle City, 
 when we were led to establish our " Circle 
 City Market ; " for thus we decided to name 
 it. Land was quietly purchased, and the 
 building put up, and a short stretch of track 
 connected it directly with the line running 
 out to our colony. Doctor Barton attended 
 
238 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 to his work very skilfully; and, I suspect, 
 lie received valuable assistance from Miss 
 Vaughn. There were several newspaper ar- 
 ticles, one or two editorials, and some illus- 
 trated magazine articles ; all these appeared 
 in due time, with judicious intervals between, 
 and the world at large grew to know a great 
 deal about our new departure, and to be much 
 interested, also. 
 
 " Mere curiosity will bring us a great many 
 customers, at first," said Colonel Royce, with 
 acumen, " but only the excellence of our 
 goods will keep them." And every observer 
 of men, and of trade laws, will admit the 
 force of the remark. 
 
 In addition to the advertising methods 
 already mentioned, Doctor Barton prepared 
 a little manual, fully descriptive of our col- 
 ony. He also started a weekly paper, printed 
 at Circle City, and devoted to the interests of 
 the colony. Special numbers of this paper he 
 sent widely, to persons likely to be interested 
 in economic and sociological matters. 
 
 Doctor Barton soon learned to make im- 
 
c-c. 239 
 
 portant use of this little publication, in edu- 
 cating the people of our colony, regarding 
 various public matters of morals and cus- 
 toms and taste. He soon noted, after start- 
 ing the paper, that a word of suggestion or 
 advice, which was printed, took hold of the 
 people more strongly than when it was merely 
 spoken. There was in them that profound 
 respect for the printed page which most igno- 
 rant people show ; it came to them with a 
 certain mystery, and therefore with authority; 
 and Doctor Barton made wise use of this 
 fact, and was often greatly amused at having 
 quoted to him ideas and suggestions from the 
 paper which he had himself written. 
 
 We have had many letters of inquiry, 
 which we have scrupulously answered; for 
 we hope that other philanthropic people, 
 learning about the possibility of reducing 
 city destitution, may be induced to follow 
 the lead of our noble syndicate, and attempt 
 (probably with improvements) another colony 
 like Circle City. 
 
 Of course any financial plan, in order to 
 
240 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 succeed, must be in harmony with the laws 
 of human conduct ; but, on the other hand, a 
 plan might be thoroughly sound in theory, and 
 harmonious with the laws of human conduct, 
 and yet fail, through lack of careful, wise 
 management. This was a thought which 
 rested heavily upon several of us, for some 
 time. Where could we find the man who 
 could take practical, immediate charge of our 
 market, and hold all the details in his head, 
 and make the great emporium pay ? 
 
 Who, indeed, but our shrewd, faithful 
 friend and co-worker, Mr. Gleason. When 
 Doctor Barton mentioned his name to me, 
 I jumped at it eagerly. I saw at once 
 that Mr. Gleason was just the man for 
 us. And so he proved. We have not had 
 time to carry out all our plans at the 
 market ; indeed not half the space is taken 
 up, as yet ; but enough has been done to con- 
 vince the syndicate that they did well in 
 engaging Mr. Gleason, at a large salary. He 
 is carrying on the great market as easily as 
 though it had been in his charge for years. 
 
c-c. 241 
 
 He looks upon it, in the main, as an enlarged 
 country store, and directs it in much the same 
 way that he directed his own store (now in 
 charge of his son) fifteen miles out in the 
 country. 
 
 I see that I must cut short the record of 
 our colony ; but I cannot do so, without refer- 
 ence to the interesting and confidential rela- 
 tions at present existent between Doctor 
 Barton and Miss Vaughn. It was she, by 
 the way, who suggested our monogram, or 
 trade-mark, C-C (Circle City), which we now 
 stamp upon all our products. 
 
 The doctor seems to be remarkably happy. 
 There is about him an external suggestion 
 of internal, suppressed ecstasy, which is un- 
 mistakable. I have seen the same expression, 
 in paintings, upon the faces of saints who 
 were privileged to look upon angels ; and I 
 think the doctor has seen an angel ; yes, 
 I know he has. And when he came to me 
 the other day, and told me that Miss Vaughn 
 had been asked to become a teacher in a 
 western college, at three times her present 
 
242 BACK TO THE SOIL. 
 
 salary, and had refused, then I felt my opin- 
 ions about the two strengthened still more. 
 Miss Vaughn told the doctor that she in- 
 tended to stay in the colony ; her work was 
 absorbingly interesting. She would never 
 give it up. Never ! 
 
 And the doctor grew more serious, as he 
 narrated this. Then, after a moment, his 
 face brightened, and he remarked that life 
 in Circle City could be very comfortable ; 
 and I would not be surprised if — if — well, 
 if the doctor went out himself to live in the 
 colony, and took to himself a wife. Sure I 
 am, that if he does, I will be the clergy- 
 man called upon to perform the marriage 
 ceremony. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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